


The Muggle Studies Project

by i-wanna-be-your-last (hmweasley)



Series: Rivalries, Blood, and Quidditch [1]
Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gryffindor Harry Styles, Gryffindor Liam, Hufflepuff Niall, M/M, Quidditch Player Louis, Ravenclaw Zayn Malik, Slytherin Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:05:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 44,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1847170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmweasley/pseuds/i-wanna-be-your-last
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Louis met on the train at the age of 11 while heading to Hogwarts for the first time. They hit it off right from the start, but a fateful sorting quickly pushed them apart. During their final year of schooling, they wind up in the same muggle studies class. When their professor decides to assign a year-long class project to promote inter-house unity, Louis and Harry may not be able to avoid each other any longer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_September 1st, 2003_

It wasn’t every day that you started Hogwarts. Louis had been thinking about this day since his birth. When they’d taken his Death Eater father off to Azkaban when Louis was five, Hogwarts had been a wonderful daydream far away from his miserable home life. Once his mum had remarried and Louis had become a Tomlinson and, later, a big brother, the need to be far away at Hogwarts had been less pressing but still a welcome alternative to a home full of screaming girls.

Louis’s mother had been having difficulty getting the family anywhere on time since her stomach had begun showing with the latest pregnancy. (It was supposed to be twins, and Louis shuddered to think what would happen once they were born. Lottie and Fizzy were enough to deal with without doubling his amount of siblings.) Even with Louis’s attempts to help with the girls, they had arrived at Platform 9 and ¾ with less than ten minutes to spare, and Louis could feel the train moving beneath him as he searched for a compartment.

The thought of the school was enough to have him bouncing happily down the train, but he couldn’t seem to find a compartment to join. Louis wasn’t arrogant enough to sit with anyone above second year. He would have time to build up rapport with the older students later. Right now he was just an unsorted little first year.

An unsorted little first year who couldn’t even find a compartment to sit in. He had to admit, maybe he was being a little picky. Louis knew first impressions were important, and the train was the perfect place to mingle with the other young purebloods. It wouldn’t do to be seen sitting with any muggle-borns on his first day. He couldn’t be labeled a blood traitor before even being sorted.

Eventually, Louis had to accept that no mingling with the oldest well-respected pureblood families was happening today. Every decent pureblood Louis passed was already in a compartment full of other purebloods. Dignified families arrived on time.

Louis’s family wasn’t dignified. Not anymore. The arrest had been one thing. Plenty of decent purebloods went to Azkaban after the war. But the divorce and remarriage had been another. It struck Louis as ironic that keeping the name of his criminal father probably would have been better for him in the long run. Accepting the Tomlinson family as his own was as close to social suicide as he could get without being a blood traitor. Not that the Tomlinson family had been looked down upon before the marriage. The purebloods didn’t look kindly on divorce, but marrying a divorced woman was apparently the ultimate shame. More so than being an imprisoned Death Eater at any rate.

Near the end of the train, Louis finally came across a nearly empty compartment. The unfamiliar boy who sat inside wasn’t one of the pureblood children Louis had prepared himself to meet today. Still, he was cute, Louis had to admit. He also appeared to be at ease on the train, so Louis figured he couldn’t be a muggle-born. Nothing too bad could come from sitting here the rest of the trip. Half-bloods could be decent at times.

Louis didn’t bother to knock as he slid the glass door open. The boy immediately looked up at him with a smile, and Louis felt his stomach flutter. The boy had been cute before, but now Louis had to fight to keep his own grin from taking over the entirety of his face.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Louis hoped the other boy couldn’t hear the shakiness of his voice.

“Of course not,” the boy replied, his grin becoming impossibly wider. “Have to make friends and all that.”

The boy struck Louis as a bit odd in the best possible way. He certainly wasn’t like the purebloods Louis had spent his entire life with, and Louis had been able to gather that upon the boy speaking only a few words.

“So,” Louis began after storing his luggage in the rack and plopping down across from the boy. “Pureblood or half-blood?”

“How do you know I’m not muggle-born?”

Louis was sure that his panic showed on his face. “You’re not, right?”

The other boy giggled, actually giggled. “No, I was just teasing you. I’m a half-blood. My mum’s a muggle, and my dad’s a wizard. You’re a pureblood though, right?”

“How do you know that?”

The half-bloods weren’t usually as well-versed on the pureblood family trees as Louis had been trained to be. Louis may have been able to recognize a pureblood on sight, but he didn’t expect half-bloods to put much stock in such things.

“You asked my blood status before you even knew my name, so you must be really concerned about it. That means you’re either a pureblood or a very rare half-blood.”

Louis gaped at the other boy. Was he really that obvious?

The boy chuckled a bit, and Louis felt his face flush.

“It’s okay,” the boy assured him. “As long as you’re not bothered by my muggle mum, I won’t be bothered about your concern over my blood status.”

Louis just looked at the boy for a moment before responding, “No, of course not.”

It was something of a lie. Louis knew he should care. This boy was kind of half-mudblood after all, but he was already far too enamored with this boy to put much stock in his ancestry. For the first time, Louis was thinking that maybe a lesser blood status wasn’t too terrible of a thing.

“Great.” The boy’s grin brightened again. “I’m Harry Styles, by the way.”

He stuck out his hand for a shake, which Louis happily took, being careful not to grasp it for too long.

“Louis Tomlinson,” he offered.

“Tomlinson,” Harry repeated. “I know about your family. You’re the adopted one.”

“I’m not adopted,” Louis cut him off sharply. “My mum gave birth to me, okay.”

Harry’s smile had dropped, and his eyes widened in fear that he had damaged his chances of a friendship with Louis.

“I know,” he assured him. “I just meant everything with your dad, you know?”

He went silent at Louis’s continuing glare.

With a sigh, Harry spoke again. “We don’t have to talk about it.”

It was silent for a few minutes before Harry spoke, still looking out of the window. “I didn’t mean it as an insult, and I didn’t expect you to take it that way. I just meant that I knew who you were. I don’t care about your dad.”

“Neither do I.”

And that was the last thing spoken about either of their families.

The rest of the train ride was taken up with jokes and Quidditch talk and stuffing their faces with sweets from the trolley. It was the most fun Louis could ever remember having with someone. He was lucky whenever he got to play with other purebloods, as their parents often disapproved, and he wasn’t allowed to play with anyone his parents deemed as not having good blood. Those restrictions didn’t apply now that Louis was on his own.

“I’m nervous,” Harry muttered as the two boys stood in front of the gathered students and watched a boy named Niall Horan get sorted into Hufflepuff.

“Don’t be,” Louis assured him. “Maybe you’ll be in Slytherin, like me.”

Harry looked as doubtful as Louis felt. Few people were as poorly cut out for Slytherin as Harry Styles, and Louis had learned that in one train ride.

Louis’s mouth tightened as he watched Zayn Malik get sorted into Ravenclaw. He recognized that name. Malik’s father was an auror who had helped send Louis’s own father to Azkaban. His mother would not be happy to know that the boy was in Louis’s year.

“We’ll still be friends though, right?” Harry asked quietly. “Even if we’re in different houses?”

“Sure.”

But Louis’s answer wasn’t reassuring to either boy. Louis just couldn’t afford to keep promises like that. Not to someone who had a muggle parent. Whatever friendships (i.e. connections) Louis made at Hogwarts would have a chance at restoring the Tomlinson family name.

Louis turned away from Harry’s disappointed face to watch a boy named Liam Payne get sorted into Gryffindor.

It was only a few more students before, “Styles, Harry,” was being called up to the stool. Louis wondered if he was the only one who noticed the slight stumble after Harry tripped over the edge of his robes. (He’d told Louis earlier that his mum had gotten them longer than necessary because she was worried about a growth spurt. Louis couldn’t see the small boy sprouting up that much.)

There was a tense moment as the hat sat on Harry’s head and remained silent. It was only several moments longer than some of the others, but it was enough for a slight whisper to work its way through the students. Louis held his breath with anticipation, willing the hat to make a quicker decision.

Finally, the hat yelled out, “Gryffindor!” Louis let out his breath, but also frowned as Harry happily bounded over to the Gryffindor table. He sat right next to Payne, and the two boys immediately began talking and laughing together. Louis felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted nothing more than to march over to the table, sit down, and insert himself into the two boys’ conversation.

Louis had been so interested in Harry that he didn’t even notice that his name had been called until someone reached out to shove him towards the stool. He hoped his face wasn’t noticeably red as he took his seat facing the school. The hat was promptly put over his head, and Louis was almost bored as he waited for what he knew would come.

Sure enough, “Slytherin!” was shouted to the entire student body within seconds of the hat being on his head. As soon as the hat was removed, Louis ambled over to the Slytherin table, much sadder than he had imagined being after the sorting he had anticipated for so long.

He couldn’t help but glance over towards the Gryffindor table and wasn’t surprised when he saw Harry looking back at him. The other boy looked a little melancholy, but there was a hope there. A hope that the two boys would remain friends.

It was more than six years before the two boys would speak to each other again.


	2. Chapter 2

_Six Years Later_

_September 2nd, 2010_

“I still don’t understand what the point of you taking N.E.W.T. level muggle studies is.”

Harry shrugged as he settled into a desk about halfway from the front of the classroom.

“It’s easy,” Harry pointed out. “I need an easy class amongst everything else this year. Besides, it’s fun seeing what most wizards and witches think about muggles. Downright hilarious actually.”

Liam smiled lightly. “As long as you’ll help me sometimes,” he urged his best friend. “Sometimes muggles just get so confusing that none of it makes sense.”

Harry laughed. “You stayed with me half the summer, Liam. You honestly didn’t pick up anything in that month?”

“Sure, I did.” Liam reached out to pull his quill and ink from his bag. “But I still don’t get most of it. Some of the stuff your family does is just plain weird. No offense.”

“None taken. My mum still thinks some things wizards do are weird, and Robin can’t get it at all.”

“Must be weird for him,” Liam commented as he began tracing his quill over his desk to form invisible marks. “Getting married and then finding out that your two stepchildren are a witch and wizard.”

“Couldn’t have been as shocking as when my mum found out her first husband was a wizard. Although, he did faint. Couldn’t revive him for a good half an hour.”

Liam laughed as though he hadn’t heard the story several times over the past year. It was one of Harry’s favorites.

Professor Chao walked in, cutting off the boys’ conversation. The Chinese man had been the muggle studies professor since Liam and Harry began taking the class in third year. He was a kind but strict man who had been raised by his muggle father after his witch mother passed away before he was of primary school age. Harry hadn’t lost a parent, but he still found a common kinship with the man over their similar parentage. He was one of Harry’s favorite professors, and perhaps that was the reason the boy kept taking a subject so useless to him.

“Good morning, class.”

The class echoed back with the customary, “Good morning, Professor Chao.”

The middle aged man smiled at them kindly as he stood before them. He was in good spirits about what he was going to share with the class.

“This year,” he began. “I wanted to give my seventh years a special year-long project.”

There were groans that only caused Professor Chao to smile wider.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. That means I’ll be giving you less work outside of the project.”

Professor Chao chuckled at the slight cheering from several of the students.

“As you all know, I am a big supporter of the wizarding world becoming more open to the muggle one. Why divide something that can be united? However, we can’t become more united with the muggles until we’re more united with each other, which is why I’ve always supported more camaraderie among members of different houses. I thought this project would be a great way to promote friendships between houses while also increasing your awareness of what it’s like to live as a muggle.

“Today, I will split you each into groups of five. Each group will contain at least one member from each house.”

Liam shot Harry a hesitant look, no doubt already furious that he was to be paired off with some Slytherin.

“Each group will be considered a muggle household during the course of the project. Some of you may be two parents families, one parent families, or maybe even singles living together. I’ll also assign you your particular role in your household. No group will have exactly the same dynamics. Based on your household, you will be doing various activities throughout the year, including budgeting or deciding how to further your career. Each group’s activities will be different based on the personas you are putting on.

“My hope is, of course, that this project will help you make new friends in your final year and help you relate more closely to muggles, but I also hope that this will help you in the real world after school. Budgeting, after all, is nice to know whether you’re doing it in pounds or galleons.”

Professor Chao chuckled slightly, and Harry managed a slight smile at the man. Group projects were always a bit worrisome until you got a feel for the dynamics of the group you’d been placed in, but Harry did have to admit that it sounded far more interesting than writing a long essay on the purpose of microwaves and how they worked.

Harry listened as the first group’s names were read off and Professor Chao told them they would be a newly married couple with one member who had three children from a previous marriage. The members of the group who been declared children appeared disgruntled, but no one complained.

“The next group,” Professor Chao read off his sheet, “is Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne,” Harry heard Liam suck in a breath in anticipation, “Harry Styles,” Harry reached out to grab Liam’s arm in excitement, “and Louis Tomlinson.”

Harry’s grip on Liam’s arm went slack as he stared at the professor in shock.

“Harry?” Liam whispered nervously. He was the only person in the school who knew why pairing Harry with Louis Tomlinson was just about the worst thing a professor could do.

“You five,” Professor Chao continued, oblivious to any reactions the five might have had, “will be university students who are all living in a small apartment together. Your first assignment is to decide what muggle field you’re each studying before the next class. It’s easy enough, and you’ll each be able to do it on your own.”

Harry turned slightly to try and catch sight of Louis from the corner of his eye. The Slytherin boy always sat in the back of the classroom, not that Harry paid close attention. Well, he hadn’t for the past two years when he’d finally gotten over that ridiculous crush, but he remembered Louis’s behavior from the years before that. The years when Harry had been hopeful that maybe Louis would actually acknowledge him again.

Louis was watching his desk with a frown when Harry looked, but he glanced up with a slight smirk as one of his friends hit him on the shoulder and whispered something with a laugh. They were probably mocking the other members of Louis’s group. Mocking Harry. Harry turned back toward Professor Chao, who was still naming off groups. He wanted to keep his view of Louis as pure as possible. He didn’t want even more reasons to dislike the boy. Reasons that he somehow disregarded no matter what happened. Liam thought he was crazy. Hell, Harry thought he was crazy. Louis Tomlinson was an asshole to anyone wearing Gryffindor robes, and not much better to anyone in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff ones.

Professor Chao finally finished his instructions. “I’ll give you the rest of class to meet with your groups. Try to get to know each other. Maybe think a bit about your first assignment. Remember, be civil.”

There was sniggering from the Slytherins as Professor Chao tossed them a pointed look.

Niall, a rambunctious Hufflepuff that Harry and Liam considered a casual friend, was quick to plop down at the desk in front of Harry as soon as it was vacated. He was motioning excitedly towards someone that Harry knew to be Zayn Malik. Harry had never spoken to Zayn, but it wasn’t surprising that Niall had. Harry didn’t think there was a person in the school that Niall didn’t know.

Zayn offered a nod of his head in greeting as he sat beside Niall and in front of Liam. Harry returned it as his stomach rolled over in anticipation. There was only one member of their group missing.

“Oi, Tomlinson.” Niall called loudly across the room; Harry stared intently at his desk. “Are you coming or not?”

Harry didn’t hear a response, so he chanced a look over to where he knew Louis was sitting. He watched as Louis finally stood and began making his way towards them. Once he reached them, there was a brief moment of hesitation as if Louis was considering where to sit. Harry was thankful that he was on Liam and Zayn’s side of the desk rather than his own as he watched Louis pull a chair up. Liam seemed uncomfortable having the Slytherin near him and shifted towards Harry, while Zayn seemed unaffected by Louis’s presence.

It was the closest that Harry had gotten to Louis in years, and he took advantage of the opportunity by throwing glances at the boy that he believed to be discreet. This project was going to be the death of him. As if having contact with Louis wasn’t enough, Harry realized that the boy was even more gorgeous up close than Harry had thought possible. The years of attempting to get over this ridiculous crush had just went entirely down the drain.

Louis, however, wasn’t using this time to mentally catalogue Harry’s physique. In fact, he was looking everywhere but at the four boys he had been put with. His frown made it clear that he was not happy about this assignment, and he intended for everyone to know it.

“So,” Liam cleared his throat awkwardly when it became clear that no one else was planning to say anything. “Has anyone given any thought to what they’re going to study at university?”

Louis snorted.

Liam turned to the Slytherin in offense, and Harry groaned as he anticipated the blowup.

“What?” Liam questioned angrily.

“It’s just a stupid assignment, Payne.” Louis rolled his eyes. “You’re not really studying anything. I don’t know why we have to discuss this. Normal people would just screw around the rest of class.”

“Excuse me for trying to start a conversation,” Liam stated. “Or did you have something better to discuss?”

You see, Louis and Liam didn’t like each other, and their hatred wasn’t the typical Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry either. It was the rivalry that always manifested itself between members of the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch teams, which meant that it got particularly nasty. Once upon a time, Liam had thought the hatred other Gryffindors held for Slytherins was ridiculous, and he’d even supported Harry’s crush on Louis. That all changed when he joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team and suddenly thought Slytherins were the scum of the earth. Shortly after that, Harry had given up on any hope he’d had toward a relationship with Louis and started trying to get rid of his feelings.

“How about nothing?” Louis suggested as he leaned back in his chair.

Harry resisted the urge to drop his head into his hands. He knew what was coming.

“Tomlinson,” Liam stated in a carefully measured voice so as not to yell. “I plan on actually passing this class, so I would greatly appreciate it if you took this seriously.”

“And if I don’t? What will you do, Payne? Tattle on me to the professor?”

Harry could feel how tense Liam was beside him, which had always been a sign of the boy’s aggravation. Harry was struggling with something to say before the fighting became full-blown, but he lost his words whenever he looked at Louis. Luckily, Niall spoke up to save the day.

“Louis, it’s just muggle studies. Surely you can put in enough effort that we’ll all pass?”

Louis smiled towards Niall with only the slightest hint of antagonism. Harry made a mental note to use Niall as peacekeeper in the future.

“I might be able to, Niall. If you ask nicely.”

Liam let out an aggravated huff of air and muttered a few choice words that Harry desperately hoped Louis couldn’t hear or things were never going to be civil.

“I think I’m going to choose culinary arts for mine.” Harry fiddled nervously with his quill as the others turned to face him in confusion.

“Culinary arts?” Harry blushed as Louis spoke directly to him for the first time in six years. “Like cooking? Muggles go to school to learn how to cook?”

Harry cleared his throat as he tried to suppress his embarrassment.

“Not like normal at-home cooking,” Harry stated quietly. “But professional chef cooking, yeah. Like, in restaurants and stuff.”

Louis watched Harry closely for several tense moments, and Harry found it necessary to look away from the other boy’s gaze. He didn’t think he was imagining the way Louis was looking at him. As if he too were amazed at seeing Harry so close up for the first time in years.

“I guess it’s different without magic,” Louis finally said with his usual sneer. “You have to have training for even the simplest of tasks.”

“I think it’s sick,” Niall piped up. “Does that mean you’ll do all the cooking in the house then? I expect it would be fantastic.”

“This isn’t real, Niall. It’s a pretend project.”

“I know that, Liam.” Niall rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the thought. Can you imagine what food cooked by someone who’s trained to make it would taste like?”

Harry thought there might have been a bit of drool on Niall’s chin. He thought about pointing out that house elves were basically trained to cook as well, but decided against it, not wanting any snide comments from Louis about Harry lowering himself to house elf status.

“What do you want to do then, Niall?” Harry asked instead.

Niall rubbed his chin as he thought.

“Muggles can study anything, right?”

“Just about anything,” Harry confirmed.

“Music? I’ve always enjoyed music. They study that?”

“‘Course they do. There are even different areas of music you can study depending on what you want to do.”

Niall frowned. “Can I just learn an instrument or something?”

Harry laughed. “I don’t know all the specifics since I’ve never planned to go to uni. I’m sure we can find out though.”

“Sounds good,” Niall nodded. “That’s what I want to do.”

Harry turned to Liam expectantly. He’d been the one so adamant about actually discussing this after all. He could go next.

“I don’t know,” Liam replied with a frown. “I’ve always planned on working at the Ministry. What do muggles even do?”

“You could always study politics,” Harry informed his pureblood friend. “It’s like the Ministry only muggle government instead.”

Liam looked contemplative. “Sounds as good as anything else I guess.” He turned towards the only member of their group who had yet to speak a word. “Zayn, what about you?”

The Ravenclaw shrugged, and for a moment Harry wondered if he would ever break his silence. Then, Zayn actually spoke.

“Art would be pretty cool, I suppose.”

Louis snorted. “Don’t you want to make any money?”

Zayn turned to look at the Slytherin with indifference. “Weren’t you the one who kept repeating that this isn’t real anyway?”

Liam tossed an appreciative grin to Zayn, and Harry knew the two of them would be getting along great from now on.

“That I did,” Louis stated after only the slightest of hesitations. “But you still might as well make as much fake money as possible.” He turned towards Harry again, and Harry felt his heart speed up. “What makes muggles the most money?”

Harry shrugged. “Depends. You could do business and eventually run a company, but that takes a while.”

“No, something that makes a lot right off.”

“Be born into money?” was Harry’s immediate suggestion.

Louis smirked, and Harry thought his heart might have stopped before promptly kickstarting again.

Louis crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair.

“Maybe I can work that into this thing. I could just be biding my time with school and attending for the parties instead of academics.”

“I don’t think Professor Chao would go for that.” Liam was back to glaring at Louis, and Harry was back to wishing the class would end. “I think the entire point of our imagined situation is for us to be poor, struggling uni students.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

“It’s a school project, Tomlinson. What makes you think it’s meant to be fun?”

“You could be a lawyer or something,” Harry continued as if Liam had never spoken up. “It’s a lot of schooling, but their pay is usually decent.”

“Lawyer,” Louis leaned back as he considered it. He was staring off into the distance, and Harry used the moment to drink in as much of the boy as he could. “They work in courtrooms, right? Like the Wizengamot?”

Harry’s eyes shot up from Louis’ torso to his eyes once he realized the Slytherin was looking at him again.

“Y-yes,” Harry stammered out. “Kind of.”

He thought he might have noticed a small smirk as Louis turned his gaze away again, but it was quickly gone.

“That wouldn’t be so bad,” Louis stated. “Getting paid a lot of money to argue with people. I’ll do that.”

“Merlin help your fake clients,” Liam muttered. Louis didn’t even bother to verbally respond this time as he shot Liam a smirk.

The bell rang, and Professor Chao called out for them to keep working on their projects before the next class. Louis was gone within seconds, leaving his chair abandoned in the middle of the aisle. Harry watched him go as he shoved his things back in his bag, almost knocking his ink over thanks to his lack of concentration.

“Please, not this again.” Harry looked over at Liam, who was ready and waiting for Harry to slowly finish putting his things away. “I can’t listen to you ramble on about your crush on Tomlinson again, Harry.”

Harry sighed as they left the classroom and began making their way to transfiguration.

“I can’t help it,” Harry whined. “Did you see him today? He’s so fit, Liam.”

“Maybe outwardly, but his ugly personality sure makes up for it.”

Harry shook his head. “He wasn’t like that though. Not the first day. I could tell he was a bit prejudiced, but he was nice. He didn’t become like that until he became a Slytherin.”

“What does that matter? The point is that he is a Slytherin. He’s like that now. Do you really want to be with him when he’s a pompous jerk?”

“Yes,” Harry whined. “I know I shouldn’t, but I do. I’m tired of trying to suppress my feelings. I’m tired of even feeling like this. This year is going to be torture, Liam. How am I supposed to do this project with him?”

“Just push him against the wall and snog him senseless if you really have to.”

“As much as I appreciate the support, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

“You have nothing to lose. Even if he doesn’t like it, he’ll be an arse anyway. You might as well get something out of him being an arse.”

Harry frowned. “I don’t think being shoved away would do much for my frustration, Liam. If anything, getting such a small taste would only make it worse.”

They’d entered the transfiguration classroom, and Harry put a stop to their conversation. Liam may have been tolerant of Harry’s crush on a Slytherin, but Harry wasn’t so sure the rest of his housemates would be.

XXX

“You can’t be serious?” Sierra asked in disgust.

She was stirring her wand around over her cauldron absentmindedly as she focused solely on Louis. The potion was turning a darker shade of purple than Louis figured it was supposed to be, but she hadn’t looked down at it recently enough to notice. It was probably already ruined. Otherwise, Louis would have let her know.

“I am serious.” Louis paid closer attention to his potion as he stirred. “That’s really the project, and there are two Gryffindors in my group as well as a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw. It’s like this assignment was specifically designed to torture me.”

“I told you to drop that useless course,” Sierra reminded him. “But you never listen to me, do you. You always have to do whatever the hell you want.”

“That’s not all though.” Louis spoke quieter and glanced behind him to make sure no one else was listening. “I haven’t even told you who the Gryffindors are.”

Sierra raised an eyebrow. She still hadn’t glanced down at her now thickening potion as she moved closer to Louis in anticipation.

“Liam Payne and Harry Styles.”

Sierra’s potion took that cue to let off a loud hissing noise, which caused Sierra to jump and send dark purple potion raining over the table and sizzling across the wood.

“Shit.”

She glanced quickly around the room to see if Professor Hemmis had seen. Luckily, the youngest of their professors didn’t seem to have heard the noise from Sierra’s cauldron. Sierra was actually fairly adept at potions, and it was no time at all before she had the potion back under control.

“I don’t think I can really save it, but at least that’s better.”

Louis had thought she had forgotten what they’d been discussing, and he was set to turn back to his own potion before she spoke again.

“Oh, no you don’t, Tomlinson. We’re talking about you and Styles.”

“What do you mean ‘me and Styles’?”

Sierra just raised an eyebrow again. She was pretty good at that.

“Louis, I’ve been your best friend for six entire years now. How daft do you think I am? You stare at him like he’s a kouros in some museum and you’re an art collector specialising in Ancient Greece. Even I’ll admit that he’s pretty fit for a half-blood though. You could choose worse. I wouldn’t blame you at all if you finally snogged him.”

“What if I don’t want to snog him?”

There was that bloody eyebrow raise again.

“You want to snog him,” she stated before turning back to her potion.

See, the problem wasn’t so much that Louis didn’t want to snog Harry, but that Louis wanted so much more than snogging. And Harry was a half-blood. A really fit half-blood, but a half-blood with a muggle mother. They couldn’t date, and if Louis so much as let one kiss happen, he’d be done for.

Louis was startled out of his thoughts by Sierra speaking once again. “You know, I don’t think anyone would begrudge you a fling with a half-blood. After all, he’s fit, and it isn’t like you’d marry him anyway. Why haven’t you gone for it?”

She sensed his hesitance and didn’t wait for an answer.

“It’s not like he’ll say no.” She rolled her eyes. “He looks at you the same way you look at him, except maybe even more pathetically.”

Louis sighed. “Thanks for that, Sierra.”

“You’re always welcome to my wonderful advice.”

She offered him a small, arrogant smile as she poured her potion into its vial.


	3. Chapter 3

Of all the times Harry next expected to speak to Louis, it wasn’t that night before dinner, yet there was the Slytherin boy waiting at the doorway to the great hall. Harry didn’t think much of it at first, the boy could have been waiting for anyone. Harry was fully prepared to walk right by as if he hadn’t even noticed Louis standing there.

“Wait.”

Harry stopped immediately, although he still wasn’t sure if Louis was speaking to him. Turning to face the boy, Harry realized that Louis was staring intently at him, waiting to see his reaction.

Liam had stopped walking as well, and was looking at Louis with unconcealed curiosity. “What do you want, Tomlinson?”

“To speak to Harry,” Louis informed him without turning his gaze away from the mentioned boy. “Not you.”

Liam huffed in annoyance.

“It’s okay, Liam.” Harry took a step towards Louis, not bothering to look back at his best friend. “Go ahead to dinner.”

Harry’s hands had begun to shake in anticipation. He took a deep breath as Liam left the two alone.

“What is it?” Harry asked, now standing directly in front of Louis.

Harry could sense a nervousness in Louis now that he hadn’t noticed from further away. The two boys watched each other for several minutes before Louis visibly swallowed and glanced into the great hall and then back towards Harry.

“Come on.”

Harry followed Louis away from the great hall and out onto the grounds. There was no one else in sight, even though the sun was still shining and the weather was warm enough to be comfortable. No doubt everyone was too busy eating to enjoy the outdoors. Harry was silent as he followed Louis towards the lake.

The boys were side by side, and Harry could make out Louis’s nervous movements from the corner of his eye. Whatever Louis had to say to him after six years was apparently putting the Slytherin on edge.

Once they reached the edge of the lake, Louis sat down on the grass without even looking at Harry. Harry hesitated for a moment before sitting directly in front of Louis and crossing his legs. He wanted to be able to see the boy without having to turn his head. Louis, who hadn’t been expecting the Gryffindor to obscure his view of the lake, looked at Harry again in surprise.

Harry watched Louis closely. The other boy didn’t seem keen to inform Harry about why he wanted to talk, but Harry, not being in any rush to leave Louis’s company, put his hands behind him and leaned back. He hadn’t had a chance to observe Louis this close and without other distractions since they were eleven, and he planned to take full advantage of the opportunity.

Louis sighed exaggeratedly, and Harry looked up into the boy’s eyes for the first time. He breathed in sharply when he saw that Louis was staring right at him. They held eye contact for several long moments before Louis spoke.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

It took a moment for Harry’s clouded mind to process Louis’s words and he was able to speak. “I know.”

“This is weird.”

“I know.”

“Harry.” Harry’s heart hammered at the sound of his name in Louis’s voice. “I’ve wanted to talk to you since that first day on the train. I really have.”

“I believe you.”

And he did. There had never been any doubt in Harry’s mind that Louis had enjoyed his company, but he had also never expected Louis to put his prejudices aside in order for them to have a friendship, let alone something more. Harry had caught the looks Louis tossed him over the years, but Harry hadn’t thought much of it when Louis clearly didn’t consider Harry important enough to talk to.

“I’m sorry.” Louis’s voice caught, and Harry stared at the other boy in shock. “I lied that night when I said we could be friends when we were in different houses. I never should have.”

Harry shrugged. “We both knew it wasn’t true.”

“Still.” Louis looked down at his hands. “It wasn’t right. Ignoring you hasn’t been right either.”

“Maybe not, but it’s what I expected.”

Louis’s hand shot out to grasp Harry’s own. Harry choked over nothing as he stared at their hands in surprise.

“I’m sick of this,” Louis muttered as his thumb ran over the back of Harry’s hand. “Of avoiding you. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“You can’t,” Harry pointed out. “We’re in a group together in muggle studies.”

Louis laughed. “Right. But I mean outside of that.”

“What about your pureblood friends?”

Louis shrugged. “Sierra actually seemed to approve. Kind of. As for everyone else, they never really liked me anyway. I’m just the screw up with a father in Azkaban whose mother got divorced and remarried. I thought that if I acted like the perfect pureblood, I would eventually fit in, but I’m still trying with limited success. It’s not worth it anymore.”

Louis pushed himself up onto his knees and lean forward. Harry’s breath caught as he watched the Slytherin’s face come closer and closer to his own. Louis stopped with his lips just inches from Harry’s. Both boys were watching the other with wide eyes, and Harry thought Louis seemed to be asking for permission to close the gap between them. In response, Harry pushed himself forward from where he’d been leaning back and touched his lips to Louis’s.

Harry brought his hand up to touch the other boy’s face while Louis’s hands found the Gryffindor’s waist. Harry felt himself falling backwards as Louis pushed him to the ground. The adrenaline rushing through Harry was unlike anything he had ever felt before. He had kissed several boys in his life, but none of them had managed to make his stomach flutter quite like Louis Tomlinson.

The Slytherin’s weight on top of Harry was pleasant, and Harry had half a mind to never let Louis get off of him. It felt like only minutes had passed when Louis pulled away. Harry cherished the feeling of Louis’s breath on his face as the Slytherin boy braced himself with hands pushing against the ground on either side of Harry’s head.

“Was that worth finally speaking to me?” Harry asked just above a whisper.

“Definitely,” Louis breathed as he leaned down once again to touch their lips together. Louis pulled away quickly and smiled down at Harry. Harry smiled back with everything he had in him before his mind unfogged just enough for his smile to drop a bit.

“What does this mean exactly?” he questioned.

“This?” Louis asked before leaning down to peck Harry on the lips once again. “If you want it to, then I suppose it could mean that we’re dating?”

Harry’s hands gripped Louis’s hips tighter.

“You’d be willing to date a Gryffindor?”

“I’d be willing to date you.”

Harry pushed himself off of the ground far enough to pull Louis’s lips back to his own. They didn’t come up for air until darkness had settled in around them.

“How are we going to do this?” Harry asked as the two boys walked back to the castle several hours later. “Tell everyone, I mean.”

Louis shrugged and squeezed Harry’s hand tighter. “I don’t think we need a formal announcement. We go on with our lives, and they figure it out.”

“Right. Okay. It’s just- People are going to freak out. It’s hard to imagine just going with it.”

Louis laughed quietly. “Would you like me to get up in front of the Great Hall and publicly proclaim my affection for you, Harry?”

Harry flushed. “No, no. It’s fine.”

“Damn it. I suppose I’ll just have to settle for pushing you up against a wall and kissing you in between classes.”

“I think that’ll get the point across.” Harry smirked.

“Mhm,” Louis hummed as he stopped walking long enough to pull Harry into another kiss. “I plan on parading you around every chance I get,” Louis informed Harry as he pulled away.

“I look forward to it.” Harry pulled Louis in again. They’d make it to their common rooms eventually.


	4. Chapter 4

“I hope you’ve all spared a thought on your assignments from last class.”

Professor Chao appraised the students closely as he paced at the front of the classroom.

Muggle studies had already become Harry’s favorite subject this year, and as he felt Louis’ thumb press into his thigh, his fondness for the subject increased. Harry squeezed the hand Louis had rested on his thigh gently before tuning back in to what Professor Chao was saying.

“I’ll be coming around to each group quickly in order to make sure everything is in order and give you these.”

He held up a thick stack of parchment.

“I have created a schedule for each group with what your assignments are and when they are each due. Feel free to talk to me about anything that needs to be clarified, of course. If we have time, I’ll try and go over the first several assignments with all of you.”

Professor Chao moved then to the group sitting directly in front of Harry’s own. They’d be next, so there wasn’t much time to do anything other than wait for the professor. Harry leaned back slightly and caught Louis’s hand once more in his own. He glanced over at Liam only to find the boy frowning down at Louis and Harry’s entwined hands.

“Liam.” Harry sighed. He was pretty sure that he heard Louis snort in laughter on his other side, but he ignored it to focus on his best friend.

“I’m sorry,” Liam replied indignantly. “This is just weird. Too weird. I knew you liked him, but I didn’t expect you to actually date him. I need time to adjust to my best friend dating a Slytherin. I can’t get over it in a day.”

“You have fun with your little crisis, Payne,” Louis drawled. Harry glanced over just in time to see him rolling his eyes. When Harry looked back at Liam, he was glaring at the Slytherin.

“I think it’s great,” Niall interrupted.

Harry inwardly rejoiced. Not only had Niall stopped a possible argument, but he was the first to show genuine excitement over Harry and Louis’s relationship.

“You look kind of perfect together.”

Harry smiled brightly but couldn’t answer before Professor Chao was standing over their table.

“And what will you boys be studying?” The man asked as he handed them each several pieces of parchment.

The boys quickly went around the table to tell him what they had decided on last class.

“Interesting,” Professor Chao muttered as he scribbled something down on his own piece of parchment. “It sounds like you have all chosen fields that work well with your real life interests. I look forward to seeing what you accomplish this year.”

Louis leaned over towards Harry as the man moved to the next group. “He talks as if we’re actually earning degrees on this stuff and he’s the one who will be teaching us everything.”

Harry had to stifle his laughter. He noticed Liam shoot him an odd look, and Louis straightened up as if proud of himself. Even a girl from the group in front of them had turned around to see what exactly Harry was laughing at. Harry’s cheeks turned a bit pink, but he was too absorbed with Louis to pay more than the faintest bit of attention to his embarrassment.

Liam’s hand on his arm pulled Harry’s attention from Louis.

“We need to start on this.” Liam motioned at the parchment in front of him.

Right, Harry reminded himself. They were in class and had work to do.

“We have to budget,” Zayn informed the others. He seemed to have been reading the parchment while everyone else was otherwise distracted. “Professor Chao has given us a monthly income, and we have to budget for the month with it.”

“I don’t know anything about muggle money,” Louis groaned. “How much money is this even?”

He motioned towards the number scrawled across his parchment. The same number that all five boys had in front of them.

“Not much.” Harry frowned. “Practically nothing.”

“We are students,” Zayn reminded them. “We’re not exactly working full-time. Apparently,” he read from the parchment, “A couple of us have part-time jobs, but other than that, we’re really not making any money.”

“Wait.” Louis was staring intently at his piece of parchment. “What the fuck is McDonald’s? Is that the not-a-restaurant-but-called-one place that muggles go to with all the red and yellow? No. I refuse to work there. No way.”

Harry smiled gently, and squeezed Louis’s hand. “Remember. You won’t really be working there.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Louis muttered. “I’m not feeding muggles their trash that they think is food.”

“You will,” Liam said. “You, me, and Zayn are the only ones with income in the group, and we can barely make rent with this already.”

“What about Niall and Harry?” Louis scanned the parchment. “Why aren’t they working?”

“I kind of am,” Niall stated. “I’m performing in bars, but it’s erratic. Never know if I’ll be paid or not.”

“Apparently, I can’t find a job,” Harry said as he looked at his parchment. “I’ve applied at lots of places.”

“So you’re basically leeching off us.” Louis frowned.

Harry turned to look at his boyfriend with a grin. “Do you really mind me leeching off of you?”

Harry could see Louis attempt to suppress his smile, but it failed.

“I suppose I can allow it as long as you are, in fact, looking, but I’ll be needing frequent updates on your job search to make sure you’re not just a lazy arsehole.”

A giggle escaped Harry’s lips, and he couldn’t bring himself to be embarrassed as he leaned his shoulder against Louis’s own.

Liam sighed. “So, budgeting.”

XXX

Louis glanced up from his meal to see his best friend, who was sitting across from him at the Slytherin table, watching him.

“Sierra, can you stop staring at me like that?”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, but the smirk never left her face. “I just can’t believe you actually did it. After six years of wanking off to thoughts of the boy, you actually went and got him.”

“You’re being surprisingly accepting of this,” Louis said as he picked up his fork again. “Especially in comparison to certain Gryffindors.”

Sierra looked up from her plate sharply.

“Liam Payne can bite my arse.”

She groaned and threw her fork down on the plate.

“I’m so sick of self-righteous Gryffindors who think we Slytherins are the self-absorbed ones. They need a dose of reality.”

“I’m with you,” Louis assured her. “But you got a bit too fired up about that. What’s happening?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered in a tone that clearly conveyed she was hiding something.

Louis watched her closely as she picked over her food.

“You like someone from another house,” he concluded. “A Gryffindor?”

Her head snapped up once more. “Not all of us find conceit flattering, Louis.”

“Harry’s not conceited,” Louis murmured quietly. “Is it a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff then?”

“It’s not someone I like, Louis. In fact, it’s not even a boy. It was Cassie Lancaster. She was going on about Slytherins to her friends in the bathroom when I walked in.”

“Oh,” Louis suddenly understood. “Payne’s ex girlfriend.”

Cassie was a Ravenclaw but had always made her dislike of Slytherins clear to anyone who would listen. It was a necessary prejudice in order to date Liam Payne, Louis supposed. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened between Cassie and Liam. They had been Hogwarts’s “it” couple until late last year when they had broken up suddenly. As far as Louis knew, they each refused to speak of the relationship with anyone. It was the great unsolved mystery of the year.

“I can’t stand any of them,” Sierra growled. “They’re all self-righteous.”

She took a bite before reconsidering and speaking again with her mouth full.

“Except maybe the Hufflepuffs.”

Louis shrugged. “It’s kind of hit-or-miss with the Hufflepuffs. Niall Horan’s decent.”

Sierra gave a short nod to show her agreement.

XXX

Across the hall, Miriam had been going on about something since sitting down at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast, but Niall would be hard-pressed to tell you what it was. She’d been turned slightly towards him the whole meal and talked as if he was the only one listening. She never even noticed Keith across the table hanging on her every word.

Niall tried to appear oblivious to her crush on him in order to avoid having to actually confront her about it, but in reality, he had been trying to hold her off since second year. Even if he had felt something for her, there was no way he could date her when his best friend was so clearly in love with her. Niall couldn’t even figure out how Miriam wasn’t more aware of Keith’s feelings either. The guy was even more obvious than she was.

“I was thinking about the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year.”

Niall caught on to that one sentence and finally looked over to Miriam.

“Already?” He asked. “It’s only the first week of school, and the first Hogsmeade trip isn’t until October. Halloween. The end of October.”

“I know,” she sighed. “It’s just that I’d really like to have someone to go with this time, and you have to start thinking about these things early.”

Oh. Great. The first week of school, and he was already having to extract himself from things like this. Last year she hadn’t started dropping hints about Hogsmeade until about two weeks before the trips. Apparently, she was getting desperate in their final year.

He decided to go for the usual approach that had worked in the past.

“But we always go the three of us,” he reminded her, acting disappointed that she wouldn’t be joining Niall and Keith if she got a date. Niall even threw in a gesture towards Keith to remind Miriam of his presence.

Miriam’s eyes did rake over Keith briefly, but she was back to looking at Niall in no time. She wasn’t usually quite this straight-forward. The three of them had been friends since first year, and she usually paid good attention to Keith. She really was determined this year.

“I know,” Miriam said. “And usually we wind up in a huge group by the end of the day. I’d just like to go on a Hogsmeade trip with one special boy for once in my life.”

One special boy? Really?

Niall shoveled some food in his mouth before replying, knowing that it drove Miriam crazy. “Who knows. Maybe you’ll find one.”

Miriam’s nose wrinkled in disgust, but she continued to focus all of her attention on Niall.

“Or maybe he’s the one who needs to find me.”

Niall just shrugged in response. He could see Keith frowning out of the corner of his eye.

XXX

“Where do you want to live after school?”

Harry glanced up from the transfiguration notes he’d been trying to study. He struggled with the subject, and Louis’s presence wasn’t helping his concentration.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I hadn’t given it much thought. Just wherever I end up, I suppose.”

Louis watched him for a few moments before nodding a bit and turning back to his own notes. Just as Harry looked back down at his parchment, Louis spoke again. “I think I want to live in London. It’d be fun.”

“It would,” Harry agreed without looking up.

“Plus,” Louis continued as if he had Harry’s complete attention, which he really did even if Harry was trying to pretend otherwise. “Everything’s in London. Diagon Alley, St. Mungo’s, the Ministry.”

“Mhm.”

“Would you live in London?”

Harry looked up then. There was something in Louis’s tone. Something that was shocking after less than a week of dating. Harry probably should have felt more alarmed than he did.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I would.”

Louis nodded again. “Cool.”

It was quiet for a few minutes before Harry looked up again, unable to concentrate on his studying.

“Lou.”

Louis glanced up immediately, not seeming to have been concentrating much either.

“Hm?”

“What are you going to do after Hogwarts?” It was a question that had been on the back of Harry’s mind since their last muggle studies class. “I know you’d be a lawyer in the muggle world, yet I don’t know what you really want to do.”

Louis smiled. “Don’t even know myself. My mum went on about it all summer, but I still can’t make up my mind.”

Harry’s brow furrowed. “What are you studying for N.E.W.T.S. then?”

“Just whatever I had decent enough marks in.” Louis smirked. “I was lucky to even get good enough O.W.L.S. in most of my classes. Don’t know how I managed to scrape by with enough classes to still attend Hogwarts. Why do you think I’m in muggle studies? Much easier than arithmancy with all the numbers. What about you then? What are you going to do?”

“Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry,” Harry told him. “If I can get a job at least. It is the Ministry. I may end up wherever I can find work at first, but that’s the goal.”

“I’m sure you’ll make it.” Louis’s voice was confident, and Harry knew he wasn’t lying.

Harry shrugged though, unable to have such confidence in himself.

“You will,” Louis continued. “You’ll be some Ministry big wig some day, I just know it. But please don’t become all big-headed.”

“Okay, Mr. ‘I’m-too-good-for-a-muggle-job.’”

Louis shoved him slightly in protest before pulling Harry back to his side.


	5. Chapter 5

It didn’t take long for Louis to pick up on the silence that fell whenever he walked by other Slytherins in the halls. He hadn’t expected his relationship with Harry to be taken too warmly by his housemates, but he hadn’t wanted to believe that he would be so obviously ostracized. Thinking back on it, he hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone in his house other than Sierra since his relationship became public. They were always scrambling to get away. Louis had written it off at first, but that was becoming more difficult to do as they became less secretive of their disdain.

“They could at least have the decency to not stare,” Louis said angrily as he speared some meat with his fork.

Sierra tossed an uncaring glance over at the whispering Slytherins. “If it’s really bothering you, why not go sit with your boyfriend?”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “You really think it would be better at the Gryffindor table?”

Sierra shrugged as she took a dainty bite of her salad.

“Sierra.” Louis laid his fork down in preparation. “If you’re mad, at least say it outloud.”

Louis cringed as Sierra’s fork hit the table with a clang.

“I’m not mad.”

“You’re obviously not happy.” He sent a pointed look to her fork that was now lying haphazardly on the edge of the table.

Sierra huffed loudly. “Obviously.” She motioned down the table again where people continued to whisper and glance their way.

“You’re not the one they’re talking about,” Louis reminded her.

“Does it matter? Everyone knows we’re best friends. You really think my name isn’t coming up? You really think I haven’t had snide comments made to me?”

“You wanted me to date him,” Louis reminded her.

“I wanted you to have fun with him,” she said with a scowl. “Some sort of fling that wasn’t paraded around the school.”

“That isn’t what you said. You didn’t say anything against dating as long as it didn’t lead to marriage.”

Louis knew he couldn’t tell her that sometimes he was unable to stop himself from thinking about marrying Harry, even when fears of ostracization filled his head.

Sierra sighed as she looked at him intently. “Whatever you’re doing with Harry Styles isn’t about fun, and everyone knows it. You look at him like he hung the moon. No one’s fooled.”

“Maybe I’m not trying to fool them.”

“That’s the problem.” Sierra looked down at her plate and picked up her fork again. “You should prepare yourself for a lot worse than this.”

Louis watched his best friend as she took a bite of potatoes. “What about you?”

Sierra froze without looking up at him, but Louis pressed on, wanting to hear her actually say it.

“What should I prepare myself for from you?”

It was quiet as Sierra picked at her potatoes. Finally, she cleared her throat. “I don’t know, Louis. I just don’t know.”

Louis pushed his plate away uneaten.

Harry, meanwhile, watched the Slytherin from his place at the Gryffindor table.

“Stop staring at Tomlinson and eat, Harry.”

Harry hardly spared Liam a glance as he blindly took a bite to appease him.

“He’s upset,” Harry told an unconcerned Liam. “I think Sierra Brechbohl said something to him. He’s not eating.”

“She’s his best friend.” Liam continued shoveling food in his mouth, hardly paying attention. “I’m sure they’re fine.”

“It’s not just her I’m worried about though. All of the Slytherins keep looking at him.”

“Well, the Gryffindors aren’t exactly thrilled about your choice of boyfriend either.”

“They’re not whispering behind my back,” Harry said. And it was true. A couple of people had expressed their disbelief and even dislike for the relationship after they discovered it, but no one had let it interfere in their friendship with Harry. “Louis said that most of the Slytherins won’t even talk to him.”

Liam finally spared a glance over at the Slytherin table and frowned as he noticed that Harry wasn’t exaggerating Louis’s unhappiness.

“He made his decision,” Liam said. “I will say this: I respect him more if he’s choosing to be with you even if he has to put up with shit from his friends.”

“They’re not his friends,” Harry stated with eyes still on Louis. “Not really.”

Liam shrugged. “I agree with you.”

Suddenly, Harry’s view of Louis was blocked by another Gryffindor, and Harry’s eyes refocused on Jesy Nelson, who was taking a seat across from them. Harry and Liam both watched her closely as she began to gather food on her plate.

“I wanted to talk to you,” she said to Harry upon looking up to see him watching her in confusion. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No,” Harry assured her. “It was just unexpected.”

They never really talked to Jesy. She was a nice girl, and Harry considered her a friend on a very shallow level. They just had different primary friend groups. In fact, Harry was pretty sure she mostly hung out with people from other houses, including Niall Horan.

“I wanted to tell you that I think it’s great you’re dating Louis Tomlinson.”

Harry felt a surge of affection for the girl as she went on.

“If there’s one thing Hogwarts needs more of, it’s inter-house friendships and relationships. That whole ‘Slytherin’s are evil’ shit is ridiculous. I don’t really have any close friends that are Slytherins personally, but that’s only because they believe all that crap too.”

“Aren’t you a half-blood?” Liam interjected. “Most of them wouldn’t like you even if you weren’t a Gryffindor.”

Jesy leveled him with an unamused gaze. Upon feeling Harry’s elbow dig into his side, Liam quickly defended himself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Not to you. I just don’t think as highly of Slytherins as you seem to.”

“It’s not about thinking highly of people,” Jesy told him. “It’s about giving them a chance.”

Liam shrugged, and Harry thought he heard a muttered, “whatever,” as Liam went back to his food.

Harry turned back to Jesy and tried to ignore his best friend. “Thank you,” he told her honestly. “That means a lot.”

She smiled brightly at him, and Harry wished that he’d gotten to know the girl better over the years. Jesy seemed bright and welcoming, two traits Harry couldn’t really use to describe Liam.

“Niall said you two were adorable together.”

So Harry had been right. She was one of Niall’s friends.

“Did he really?” Harry blushed.

Jesy nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve never heard him go on about a couple before. He’s typically not a romantic guy, but I think if you two broke up I’d find him drowning in ice cream. That must mean that whatever you two have is pretty remarkable.”

Harry felt the customary grin break out on his face, the one that was always present when he was around Louis or talking about Louis. “I suppose it is.”

Both Harry and Jesy ignored Liam’s scoff. Instead, Jesy glanced behind her towards where Louis sat at the Slytherin table.

“He does look like he’s having a rough time, doesn’t he?”

Harry nodded as he watched Louis stand up from the table and walk out of the hall. He paid no attention to Sierra, who had turned to speak to another Slytherin. Harry wanted to go after him, but he also didn’t want to be rude towards Jesy.

“Go after him then.” Harry turned to see Jesy smiling at him. “It’s okay. I know you want to.”

“Thank you,” Harry said with a smile. “For everything.”

He thought he’d be getting to know Jesy a lot better in the future.

As soon as he was in the entrance hall, Harry called Louis’s name. Luckily, the boy had yet to disappear into the dungeons, and he turned with a smile as Harry made his way across the hall.

Upon reaching him, Harry’s hands immediately found Louis’s waist, and Harry brought his forehead down to rest against the shorter boy’s.

“How are you?” Harry’s thumbs rubbed the spot on Louis’s waist where they rested.

Louis sighed, smile dimming a bit.

“I’m good. No, really,” he assured at Harry’s disbelieving frown. “I am. It’s not the best, and you have no idea how nice it is to actually have someone happy to see me.”

Harry squeezed Louis’s side before wrapping his arms even farther around the boy’s waist.

“Over all though,” Louis continued. “I’m okay.”

Harry pulled Louis in as close as possible, allowing Louis to rest his head on Harry’s chest.

“This is all so stupid,” Harry complained. “I hate that we can’t be together without everyone freaking out.”

“It’s the way it’s always been.” Louis sighed. “For thousands of years, probably, Gryffindors and Slytherins have hated each others’ guts. That’s a kind of anger that can’t really stop.”

Harry let out a noise of frustration. “It’s still stupid.”

“Agreed, but in less than a year, we’ll be out of here anyway. Then we don’t ever have to worry about stupid house rivalries anymore.”

Louis pulled back so he could look up at Harry.

“I’ve never looked forward to leaving Hogwarts before.”

“Me either,” Louis agreed before pushing up on his toes to let their lips meet in a kiss.

“Cute.”

Louis and Harry broke apart at the sound of Caroline Parkinson’s voice. They’d been kissing in front of the only passageway Slytherins could use to get to their common room from the Great Hall, and a small group of five or so Slytherins were watching them with expressions that ranged from amusement to outright disgust.

Harry wondered how long some of them had been standing there without saying anything, and a blush colored his cheeks.

Caroline scoffed as she deliberately pushed them apart in order to get to the passageway. Louis said nothing and continued to watch Harry as the Slytherins pushed in between them, with some throwing glances Louis’s way. Harry thought they were all gone when there was no longer anyone between him and Louis, but as he stepped closer to the boy, someone cleared their throat.

Harry looked over to see a girl he recognized but didn’t know by name.

“Leigh-Anne?” Louis watched her questioningly and unsure.

The girl raised her hand in a slight wave of greeting and smiled to show that she was standing before them in peace. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about that. Not that I had anything to do with it, but you didn’t deserve it.”

It was quiet for several seconds before Harry poked Louis, encouraging him to answer his housemate.

“Thanks,” Louis choked out. He seemed surprised at Leigh-Anne’s apology on behalf of others in their house.

Leigh-Anne nodded slightly before heading towards the common room herself. Only she made sure to go around the couple completely, not trying to pull them apart..

“Who was she?” Harry asked once the girl was out of earshot.

“Leigh-Anne Pinnock.” Louis was still watching the passageway the girl had disappeared down. “Those are the first words we’ve ever spoken to each other.”

“What year’s she in?”

“Ours. Seventh.”

“She’s in your year and house, and you haven’t spoken at least once?” Harry may not have been incredibly close to all of his housemates, but he could at least say that he had greeted them a handful of times.

Louis shook his head. “She’s a bit of an outcast with the Slytherins. I don’t think she was happy to be sorted in with us, and the feeling was kind of mutual. All her friends are in the other three houses.”

“It must be hard being in a house that hates you.”

Louis snorted. “Yeah, a bit.”

“Maybe you could befriend Leigh-Anne,” Harry suggested. “It’s worth a shot. She seems nice.”

Louis nodded. “That’s an idea. It would basically be social suicide with the Slytherins, but I don’t think I have any hope of redeeming myself at this point anyway.”

Harry kissed Louis on the cheek. “I want you to have at least one friend in your house.”

Harry flinched as he realized what he had implied about Louis’s friendship with Sierra, but Louis either didn’t register the implication or had already come to terms with it as he nodded in agreement.

“I’ll talk to her,” he said. “Promise.”


	6. Chapter 6

Liam had looked forward to the start of Quidditch practices every year since he made the team. Quidditch helped relieve all of his stress, and if there was any time he needed that, it was now. However, Quidditch practice also brought the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry to full force, and that was just the sort of thing Liam needed to forget at the moment.

“Slytherin may have won the cup last year,” Harmony, the captain, said as she paced in front of the team. “But this year we will crush them.”

Harmony loved conflict a lot more than her name would suggest, and over the years, Liam had become used to her violent way to speaking.

“We have to keep our eye on the cup,” she continued. “That’s the goal. Playing it game by game isn’t enough. We’re always going to have the cup in our heads this season. Our match against Slytherin is up first this year, and it’s the most important game of the season. I want us to win, but I want us to win with the biggest lead possible. The more we can do now, the less we’ll have to worry about at the end of the season.”

She said the same thing every year, yet they still hadn’t won a cup since the year before Liam joined the team. Somehow, her motivational prowess had always had the ability to get them all pumped up with team spirit in spite of their poor record. Or maybe they were just scared she’d punch them if they didn’t show enthusiasm.

“I don’t want any personal feelings getting in the way of your game playing.”

Liam glanced up from where he’d been studying the wall. Sure enough, Harmony was looking directly at him. He raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t care if some of you decide to fraternize with Slytherins on your off time, but I still expect ruthlessness against them when we play.”

Liam scoffed. “Can you stop talking as if you aren’t directing this all towards me?” He crossed his arms as he made eye contact with the captain. “Harry’s dating Tomlinson, not me. I assure you I have no warm feelings for any Slytherins.”

Harmony took a step closer, towering over the still sitting Liam. “Try and keep it that way.”

She turned on her heel and began walking towards the door to the field while calling over her shoulder, “Come on, team. Let’s get this practice started.”

XXX

Louis had been captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team since fifth year. If there was one place where he felt completely in his element, it was a Quidditch pitch. Quidditch had never let him down. He hadn’t went out for the team first year because he didn’t want to make a fool of himself, but come his second year, he had taken the school by storm. If Sharrer hadn’t already been captain when Louis joined the team, then Louis honestly thought he could have been captain as early as third year. He was just that good. It wasn’t even arrogance. It was fact, and everyone knew it. He didn’t like to brag (all the time), but he could at least admit he was good.

Louis had always been championed as the Slytherin hero during Quidditch games, but that could change after recent events. Louis had scheduled the first Slytherin practice of the season the day after the Gryffindors’ because he knew the importance of getting started early. Still, Louis remained skeptical of how the practice would go. Every member of last year’s team was set to return, so Louis knew them all well. He also hadn’t spoken to any of them since word of his and Harry’s relationship got out to the whole school.

Thanks to his apprehension, Louis was the last team member to enter the locker room that evening. Everyone else sat dressed and waiting for their captain’s arrival. They appeared less than thrilled to be taking orders from him, but at least he still had a team. That was a blessing at this point.

“Look,” Louis said once he was dressed and standing in front of his teammates. “I know what you all probably think of me right now, but I want to remind you that we’re here to play Quidditch. I’m not asking you to like me, although it would be great if you did. All I’m asking is that you listen to my judgement when it comes to Quidditch and not slag me off during practice. We good?”

Everyone nodded, albeit reluctantly. Louis shook his head as he led the way onto the pitch. It was going to be a long season, he thought bitterly. There was nothing Louis loved more than Quidditch, but no matter how good he was, he wasn’t fool enough to try his chance professionally. This would be his last season ever. Now, his love was being tainted by hate. If there was one consequence of his relationship with Harry that he could fix, this would be it.

XXX

It was nearing the end of September when the boys’ muggle studies class was given their next assignment in their group project. This one was for the whole class: a monthly budget for the month of October based on their household. They had two weeks to put it together based on their income and a list of prices given to them by Professor Chao.

“Do we really need electricity?” Louis questioned as he lounged back in his chair with his feet on Harry’s lap.

Professor Chao shot him a look as he wandered by, but after seeming to deem the action as harmless enough, he moved on without a word.

“We’re living as muggles, Louis,” Harry reminded his boyfriend. “We can’t use magic to do things like cook.”

Louis frowned. “Who’s doing cooking anyway? I’m certainly not. Factor some restaurants into that budget.”

“Can’t,” Zayn began. He still wasn’t talking to them much, but he always seemed willing to voice opinions when he had them. Harry figured it was a typical Ravenclaw worry about grades. “We’re uni students who don’t have enough money to eat out every meal even if every penny we had went towards it.”

Louis mouthed the foreign word, “penny,” but didn’t say anything as Zayn continued.

“Secondly, stop being such a diva. You don’t have to actually do any of this shit.”

“First of all,” Louis began, clearly mocking the Ravenclaw by imitating his tone of voice. “Professor Chao wants this to be as realistic as possible. Secondly, I would clearly never cook.”

Zayn sighed in frustration.

Liam finally spoke from where he was examining the prices of groceries. “Is that really how expensive milk is?”

“That’s why you don’t buy it, Liam,” Harry informed his friend.

Liam started to protest, but Harry cut him off. “I know it’s healthy or whatever, but when you’re a poor uni student, you buy whatever’s cheapest. Take whatever you would have spent on milk and put that towards some beer.”

“Doesn’t that completely contradict what you just said?” Liam asked.

“Of course not,” Harry said. “It’s beer. A realistic uni experience involves beer.”

Niall laughed and reached to take the list of prices from Liam. “I’m suddenly liking the muggle university experience.”

“So then,” Louis said as he leaned over Niall’s shoulder. “I believe our grocery expenses will involve beer, that muggle stuff called pizza I’ve always wanted to try, and little else.”

Liam groaned and laid his head on the desk. Harry smirked as he offered his friend a short pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry.” Louis leaned in front of Harry to get a good view of Liam. “It’s only pretend, Payne.”


	7. Chapter 7

By the time October came around, everyone third year and above was starting to buzz about the Hogsmeade trip the day before Halloween. The third years were just excited to finally be going to the village, and many of the older kids were going about finding dates for the trip. Louis smiled at the thought that he’d be going with Harry. It was the first time he’d had a Hogsmeade date lined up this far in advance, and the thought made him feel lighter than normal, even as he ignored the glares of his housemates.

“It’s been more than a month.” Leigh spoke from her place across from Louis at the Slytherin table. “Haven’t they lost interest by now?”

“If there’s one thing Slytherins are good at, it’s holding a grudge. They’ll be glaring at me until the end of the year and possibly after if we happen across each other in Diagon Alley as Hogwarts graduates.”

Suddenly a body was slamming into Louis’s side. The Slytherin jumped, prepared to be faced with someone from his own house finally starting a direct confrontation. Instead, he found Niall Horan smiling back at him, apparently having barged into Louis on accident as he went to sit beside the boy.

“Niall!” Louis exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

Louis had grown to really enjoy Niall’s company, especially when he needed friends so badly, but the Hufflepuff boy had never come over the the Slytherin table before. Hogwarts students just didn’t sit at the tables of other houses, especially the Slytherin one, yet there Niall sat, not at all concerned about the glares that had strengthened at his presence.

“Want to talk to Leigh,” Niall explained as he took a bread roll from the Slytherin table without a care in the world.

“About?” Leigh questioned, looking just as confused at Niall’s presence as Louis was.

“Hogsmeade and our friends. You know Miriam’s been trying desperately to make me realize that I should ask her to go with me while Keith just sits there forlornly. I want to set them up, and I need your help.”

Louis had learned over the past several weeks that Leigh was close to Niall and his expansive group of friends, an accepting group that Louis had somewhat been edging into as he got lonelier. Leigh’s closest friends were the Hufflepuffs Perrie Edwards and Miriam Arvoy as well as the Ravenclaw Jade Thirlwall and Gryffindor Jesy Nelson. The five were practically inseparable when not being forced apart because of their houses.

“I’m all for Miriam finally getting over you and realizing Keith’s feelings,” said Leigh. “But how exactly are you planning to do that? I’m assuming you’re not just planning to flat out tell her, right?”

“‘Course not.” Niall snorted. “I can’t turn one of my closest friends down. I just have to get her to like Keith.”

Leigh sighed. “And how do you plan to do that, Niall?”

“Set her and Keith up on a date, of course.”

Niall seemed oblivious to the looks of confusion Leigh-Anne and Louis were giving him.

Louis finally spoke up, not feeling out of place in the conversation between the two old friends as he had in the past. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“Blind date,” Niall informed them through a mouthful of another roll that he had nicked from the table. “That’s where you come in, Leigh. I want you to tell her you’re going to set her up on one, and it’ll be Keith of course. I’ll let him know as soon as Miriam agrees.”

“Miriam would never go on a blind date,” Leigh told him. “You should know that.”

“She might.” Niall swallowed his latest bite. “If she thought it would be me.”

Leigh’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You want me to lie to her?”

“Deceive might be the better word,” said Niall. “You shouldn’t outright lie. Just kind of hint in a way that ends up being wrong.”

“Which is lying.”

“You’re a Slytherin, Leigh-Anne.”

“Wow, Niall.” Leigh rolled her eyes. “Thanks for that.”

“Sorry,” Niall said, decidedly not sorry as he grabbed another roll. “You can get Jesy, Jade, and Perrie in on it too if you want. I just thought you were the natural choice to ask.”

“Because I’m a Slytherin.”

Niall just shrugged.

Leigh seemed to be contemplating Niall’s request as they continued to eat dinner. They had just finished up their meal when Leigh finally answered.

“I’ll do it,” she said. “Only because she’s had feelings for you for too long, and I want to see her get over you. I still don’t think this will work, but it’s worth a try.”

“Thank you,” Niall called as pushed himself up from the table and began excitedly heading towards the doors of the hall. “I swear that you’ll be proven wrong.

XXX

“Hey, Zayn.”

Zayn glanced up to see Jade Thirlwall approaching him in the Ravenclaw common room. He sat down the book he’d been reading as she took the spot next to him on the couch. Jade had been one of his closest friends since first year when they sat next to each other after the sorting. She’d grown closer to her female friends from other houses once puberty hit, but Zayn and Cameron would always consider her a part of their trio. She and Cameron had even been dating for the past year, which often caused them to go off together and leave Zayn to occupy himself for long lengths of time. Plus, Jade’s girl friends had pulled her into Niall’s group, which Jade had now pulled Cameron into as well. Zayn had stayed on the fringes during sixth year, but since being put into a muggle studies group with Niall, Zayn had discovered he couldn’t resist being pulled into the group anymore. Adjusting to the rowdy group was still a bit difficult sometimes, but Zayn was happy to feel like he had his two best friends back again.

“Jade,” Zayn greeted as she draped her legs over his lap. Jade was the only person allowed to touch Zayn so freely. Zayn wasn’t against physical contact and actually engaged in it regularly, but with Jade it was different. She and Zayn didn’t touch in a way that had the potential for sex.

Jade had picked up Zayn’s abandoned book and was turning it over in her hand.

“You’ll never guess what I had to do today,” she said.

Zayn frowned as she lost his place while flipping through the book’s pages but said nothing as he went to pull the books from her hands. She let the book go without protest and looked up at Zayn with a raised eyebrow, awaiting his comment.

“What did you do today then?”

“Convince Miriam to go on a blind date.”

Zayn nodded briefly. “Niall told me about that plan.”

“Did he tell everyone?” Jade shook her head in exasperation. “If the whole school knows, then there’s no way we’re fooling Miriam.”

“It’s Niall.” Zayn hadn’t known Niall well until a month or so ago, but even he knew the Irish boy liked to talk about anything and everything. “I don’t think he does secrets well. Besides, I don’t know Miriam well, but I don’t think you’ll have any problem fooling her.”

“Why’s that?” Jade laid back on the couch so that she was looking up at Zayn with her feet still in his lap.

“She seems pretty infatuated with Niall, and I get the idea that she’s deluded herself into believing he likes her too. The power of suggestion can make some people believe almost anything, especially when they’re doing the suggesting to themselves.” He opened his book again before thinking to add something else. “Also, she doesn’t strike me as a particularly strong-minded type. Bit easy to fool, I would think.”

“Zayn!”

He shrugged. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. It’s just how some people are.”

“Right,” Jade rolled her eyes. “We can’t all be Ravenclaws.”

“Exactly.”

Jade was silent for several minutes then, and Zayn finally settled back into reading his book. Right in the middle of an intense scene, Jade spoke up again, and Zayn sat the book down with a quiet growl.

“Do you think it’s the right thing to do though?” Jade asked, ignoring Zayn’s annoyance. “I know she needs to get over Niall, but is this the right way to do it?”

Zayn shrugged. “I don’t think it’s a particularly wrong way. She may be hurt when she sees it isn’t Niall, but she’d be hurt no matter what happens. Niall’s not going to magically start reciprocating her feelings. She has to go through the hurt to get over him and move on.”

Jade smiled, satisfied with Zayn’s answer.

“I suppose you’re right,” she said before closing her eyes. “Now, go back to your book while I take a small nap.”

“Finally,” Zayn muttered before beginning to read once more.

XXX

“It has to be Niall,” Miriam said for the hundredth time in the past hour.

Perrie held her head in her hand as she listened to her best friend prattle on.

“I can’t tell you who it is,” Perrie reminded Miriam just as she had every other time the girl made that suggestion.

“But you haven’t denied it.”

“I haven’t denied that it’s anyone.”

Miriam shrugged, not seeming to care much about Perrie’s statement. Perrie had discovered that convincing the girl she was going on a date with Niall was much easier than she had expected. Once the idea had been planted in Miriam’s head, the girl’s imagination had apparently latched on to the idea and ran with it. Now, Perrie found herself discouraging Miriam a bit. After all, she didn’t want the girl to be too crushed later.

Miriam was still blabbering happily on about her date with “Niall” at the Hufflepuff table when Liam and Harry, minding their own business at the Gryffindor table, were visited by someone they hadn’t expected to see.

“Cassie,” Liam greeted flatly as the girl sat down beside him.

“Liam.” She smiled at the two boys, who could only look at her in bewilderment.

Harry watched, amused, as Liam puzzled over the reason his ex-girlfriend had suddenly decided to sit beside him for dinner.

“What are you doing here?” Liam finally asked when it became clear that the girl had no intentions of explaining herself.

“Eating.” She motioned towards her recently filled plate to emphasize her point.

“Obviously,” Liam muttered before speaking normally. “I meant, why are you sitting next to me?”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Liam looked at her for several seconds. “No.”

Harry snorted into his pumpkin juice as the girl harumphed at Liam’s answer.

“Well,” she said haughtily. “We’re not enemies at least.”

“We kind of are.” Harry had to commend Liam’s bravery for saying that directly to a girl like Cassie Lancaster’s face. “You’ve acted like a bitch to me ever since I dumped you.”

“Dumped me?” the girl exclaimed. “If I find out that’s how you’ve been telling it to people, then you’re in a lot of trouble, Payne.”

“That’s what happened,” Liam muttered and rolled his eyes.

“Anyway,” Cassie continued as if Liam hadn’t spoken. “I hear you two have been placed in a group with Zayn Malik in muggle studies.”

Harry recognized the look on her face. It was the same one she’d worn when she was flirting with Liam right before they started dating. It was her infatuated face. Apparently, Liam realized it too.

“You’re using me to get another bloke?”

“No,” Cassie replied unconvincingly. “Not at all. I’m just making conversation.”

“You never were a good liar, Lancaster.”

She sighed. “We’re through anyway, Liam. Can’t you just do me a favor?”

“Let me get this straight.” Liam set down his fork to give her his full attention. “You’ve treated me like shit ever since our breakup, and now you want me to help you?”

“I have not treated you like shit. I was a little cold towards you, and I think it was well deserved. But I’m willing to put that behind us if you do me this one favor.”

“No.”

“Liam,” Cassie whined.

“Oh, Merlin,” Liam moaned. “That’s the same annoying tone you always used when we were dating. I never thought I’d have to put up with it again.”

“Fuck you, Payne.”

“Cassie,” Liam began in a mocking tone. “We don’t do that anymore.”

Cassie gasped and stood up from the table so quickly that she almost tripped over the bench she had been sitting on.

“Go to hell, Payne,” she called over her shoulder as she stormed away.

Liam watched her go. “Merlin, I’m glad she’s gone. What did I ever see in her anyway?”

“I’m pretty sure I was subjected to a lot of speeches about how fit she is,” Harry reminded his best friend.

“Right. Glad I got those hormones out of my system then.”

“You ready for the match tomorrow?” Harry asked for a change of subject. Liam’s love life wasn’t something he typically cared about. The upcoming Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, however, Harry had been thinking about for days.

“Course we are.” Harry rolled his eyes at the feigned offence in Liam’s voice. “We’re going to pummel Slytherin into the ground.”

Harry cringed. “I’m all for us winning and getting the cup and everything, but please don’t kill my boyfriend.”

At first, Liam’s only response was shrugging as he shoveled potatoes into his mouth. It took him several moments to swallow the large mouthful and speak. “I have to aim the bludgers somewhere, mate. It’s not personal.”

“Wish I could believe that,” Harry muttered just loud enough for Liam to hear.

Liam laughed, but soon turned serious. “I’ll be honest. I still don’t particularly like Tomlinson, but I also don’t exactly wish harm on him anymore.”

Harry grinned slightly. He’d had a feeling that Liam and Louis had both been coming around to each other. Liam ignored Harry’s smile.

“Besides, killing him would just get us fouled.”


	8. Chapter 8

Louis sighed as he left the Great Hall the next morning. The majority of its occupants had been decked out in red and gold, and while it had been expected, it was also a little disheartening. Even more disheartening was the fact that his own boyfriend would be supporting Gryffindor today, not that Louis could begrudge someone for supporting their own house.

Louis was just about to leave the castle when he heard Harry call his name. Sure enough, a glance back towards the hall showed Louis that Harry was hurrying towards him. Louis was pretty sure that there wasn’t an item of clothing on Harry that wasn’t red or gold.

“I wanted to wish you luck before the match,” Harry told him once he came to a stop in front of Louis.

Louis smiled his first genuine smile that day. All of his nervousness over the match and his hostile teammates dissipated as he looked at Harry’s happy face.

“Should you really be wishing the competition good luck?” Louis asked as he pulled Harry closer by his waist.

“Don’t know.” Harry shrugged. “But I figured I could give you as much as I want and Gryffindor will still beat you, so...”

Louis gasped in offence before directing a soft pinch at Harry’s side.

“Gryffindors,” Louis grumbled. “Always thinking they’re the best.”

“We are at Quidditch.” Harry smiled brightly down at him.

“You guys haven’t won the cup in years.”

“We’re still the best.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Styles.”

Harry leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, and Louis felt the ridiculous butterflies erupt in his stomach just like they always did.

“But I really do believe you’ll do well, Louis. You always do. Greatest Quidditch player I’ve ever seen, honestly. You’ll be fantastic.”

Louis could feel his face heating up. “You’re overdoing it a bit, Harry. I know I’m perfect and all, but you don’t have to gush.”

“Yes, I do.” Louis was mesmerized by the amount of pride in Harry’s voice. “Because all of it is true, and I’m unbelievably lucky to have you.”

Louis buried his face in Harry’s neck to hide the ridiculous smile that had taken up residence on his face.

“I need to get down to the pitch,” he muttered into Harry’s skin.

Louis made no attempts to leave Harry’s embrace though, even as he listened to students walk past them and out onto the grounds.

Harry didn’t say anything as he held Louis close. After a few moments, Louis noticed that Harry was quietly humming something to himself, which only made Louis’s smile brighter. He was content standing here with Harry, and he knew that facing his teammates would only bring him more anxiety. He’d rather stay here forever.

Harry pressed a kiss to Louis’s crown before pulling away slightly to look him in the eyes.

“Now, you really do need to go down there,” he said.

Louis looked back through the doors leading into the Great Hall and noticed that it had nearly emptied.

Harry continued, “It wouldn’t do for the team captain to be late.”

“What if he just never showed up?”

“You’d never miss a game of Quidditch.”

And Harry was right. He wouldn’t. Quidditch was Louis’s first love in life, and he’d be damned if his bigoted housemates changed his feelings.

“You’re right,” Louis sighed. He went up on his toes in order to kiss Harry quickly on the lips. “I’ll see you later, and thank you.”

Louis squeezed Harry’s hand tightly as he took it in his own. “Walk with me?” he asked.

“Course.”

Merlin, Harry and his smile were going to be the death of him, and Louis didn’t even mind. The walk to the pitch seemed to take no time at all, and soon enough, Harry was kissing him in front of the Slytherin locker room. If Harry hadn’t been there, Louis probably would have took into account that this was exactly why his old friends hated him now, and this wasn’t the best idea when he was worried about their anger. But that didn’t matter because Harry’s lips were on his, and that was all he wanted at the moment. Then, Harry was pulling away again, and Louis sighed when he remember that they had to part ways.

Harry smiled at Louis’s look of apprehension before leaning down to kiss the Slytherin’s cheek. 

“Good luck,” Harry whispered softly in Louis’s ear. He began to walk away, letting Louis’s hand slide slowly from his own. Louis held his arm out as far as he could in order to prolong the contact, and he took pride in the smile he could see on Harry’s face as the other boy glanced back in his direction.

Louis willed his happiness to stick around as he entered the locker room. He ignored his team mates as he dressed for the game with thoughts of Harry still running through his head. And Quidditch of course. He thought about the game and the feeling of flying through the air while holding the quaffle. That’s what this was about. He could push all thoughts of his team mates’ feelings aside. What they thought of him wouldn’t matter in the air. Not if they wanted to have any chance of winning.

“Right then,” Louis announced to the waiting team once he was dressed for the game. He’d given pep talks before every game the past couple of years, yet this one would be the most difficult. He’d spent hours going over what he would say in his head last night when he should have been far more occupied with how he would play.

“We’ve beaten Gryffindor for the past five years, and we all know we can do it again. The lack of support has never hindered us before, and it won’t now.”

“Bet even you’re rooting for Gryffindor now though. Right, Tomlinson?”

Louis turned toward Cayla Demerath, one of his beaters. She wasn’t the brightest. Downright idiot, even. But she possessed a strength that Louis had never encountered in another female before, so Louis put up with her inability to understand plays as long as she could lob bludgers somewhere in the vicinity of the other team’s players.

“Why would I be rooting for Gryffindor?” Louis asked with genuine confusion. He looked around at his teammates, who all seemed to be sneering up at him. All Slytherins were good at sneering. If you weren’t when you entered the house, then you learned. But it was usually directed at members of the other houses, not at each other.

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Lucy Ransom, the keeper, spoke up. “Styles has you wrapped around his wand.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Harry and I’s relationship has nothing to do with Quidditch. He roots for his house, I root for mine. I assure you that I don’t want Gryffindor to win anymore this year than I did last year. Why would I want the team I captain to lose a game?”

Lucy shrugged. “Styles could have bribed you. Threatened to withhold sex or something. I think it’d work on you. You’re disgustingly whipped.”

“You’ve greatly misjudged Harry if you think that’s an idea that would even occur to him.”

“People always think of Slytherins as the cunning ones,” Lucy said. “But I think those Gryffindors are the real schemers. They’re always putting other people down to get themselves ahead.”

“Not Harry.” Louis was getting angry now, and he wanted to get out on the pitch before he injured their team dynamics any farther. “That’s the end of that. Now come on. We’ve got a game to play, and I want all of you to play your best. You can trust that I will be.”

A few members scoffed, but Louis ignored them as he walked out on to the field.

XXX

It was the most painful Quidditch match that Harry had ever witnessed. Sure, his team was doing great, but it was hard to watch the Slytherin team fail so miserably. Louis had always put together a great team that worked well together and respected their captain. Now, Gryffindor, who hadn’t had a great team in years, was actually pummeling Slytherin into the grave. Neither Louis nor the other two Slytherin chasers had managed to score even once. Meanwhile, Harry had lost track of the amount of quaffles Gryffindor had gotten past Lucy Ransom.

Even from the distance of his spot in the Gryffindor stands, Harry could see the frustration on Louis’s face. It wasn’t that the team lacked the skills necessary to win this game. It was that none of the Slytherins wanted to pass Louis the quaffle, and it was horribly messing up all of the team dynamics. This made the Gryffindors more confident, which led to them playing better than Harry had seen them in years. Once Gryffindor scored a few times and Slytherin still failed to get any points, Lucy became much less confident and began letting even more quaffles in. It was a nightmare that Harry reluctantly continued to watch.

Harry let out a breath of relief once the snitch was in the hands of the Slytherin seeker. The boy clearly outmatched his Gryffindor counterpart and probably could have avoided the snitch and kept the game going until Slytherin got far enough ahead to win, but he had obviously recognized the hopeless case and wanted to end Slytherin’s misery before it got even worse.

Cheers erupted all across the stadium as most of the school celebrated Gryffindor’s clear lead. One game into the season, and they were already way ahead for the cup.

Harry remained sitting next to Zayn, who had been silent as he watched the game intently. Both boys watched as Louis landed and began walking off the pitch while refusing to look up at the crowd. Zayn’s sigh caused Harry to look over at the Ravenclaw.

“Good luck cheering him up, mate.” Zayn placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “This is going to eat him up inside.”

And Harry knew it was true. Louis would blame himself for the loss, even though it was clear as day that the other chasers were at fault. Harry stood and began pushing his way through the still cheering masses. He figured Louis would take a while to change, falling deep into his feelings of failure, but Harry didn’t want to take any chances of missing him.

Once he reached the doorway to the Slytherin locker room, Harry settled onto the grass to wait. Students were streaming by as he watched. Most eagerly recounted the game, and several Gryffindors were going on about the party that was sure to happen in the common room. Slytherins came by now and then. A few even threw glares Harry’s way as if it had somehow been his fault their house had lost. Harry chewed on his lip as he considered the possibility that they were right in a sick, twisted way. Sure, the real problem was their own prejudices, but Harry did have a slight part to play in the disaster that had just unfolded.

The door opened and Louis came through sooner than Harry had been expecting. Harry watched as Louis breathed a sigh of relief once he was out of the locker room, and Harry got the impression that he was thankful for having escaped his teammates. Louis noticed him sitting there and ambled over with much less enthusiasm than usual. Harry stood up to meet him and immediately pulled Louis into an embrace.

Harry held Louis tighter as he heard the shorter boy sigh into his chest. Louis’s arms wrapped around him, and the two boys stayed there just enjoying the other’s presence. If Louis’s teammates came by, they’d at least had the decency to leave the couple alone, which led Harry to believe that they were all still in the locker room.

“Can’t believe that even happened,” Louis mumbled into Harry’s chest. Harry ducked his head down to press a kiss to Louis’s crown as the Slytherin continued to mumble. “I’ve never played that shitty in my life.”

“You weren’t the shitty one.” Harry squeezed Louis tighter. “It was your teammates. You played amazingly, and they screwed it up for everyone.”

Louis scoffed. “I know that, but I’m captain, so I’m still going to blame myself. I feel like a failure anyway. I may as well give up my position as captain if my own team isn’t going to listen to me.”

“No,” Harry replied fervently. He grabbed Louis’s shoulders and pulled the boy back so he could look him in the eyes. “You’re an excellent captain who’s just been stuck working with the worst teammates imaginable. You can’t resign.”

“Then what am I supposed to do, Harry? We’ll lose every game, and I’ll be the one they blame. I can’t make things worse with my housemates, not in my last year. I’m losing my mind as it is.”

Harry sighed and pulled Louis closer again.

“It’ll get better,” he murmured into Louis’s hair. “I promise. But don’t let them force you to give up your dream.”

Louis’s breath caught in his throat, and for a second, Harry was worried that the other boy was going to cry. Instead, he breathed out a shaky, “Thank you,” and Harry felt a surge of affection for the other boy. He leaned down to kiss Louis on the lips before pulling back to smile at him.

“How about coming with me to the party in the Gryffindor common room?”

Louis frowned. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea. Not only do I imagine Gryffindors don’t enjoy Slytherins in their common room, but I am kind of the captain of the team you just beat.”

“True,” Harry sighed. “I suppose that wouldn’t be very fun for you, would it?”

Louis shook his head looking almost regretful, as if he wanted nothing more than to be in a better mood and go to the party with Harry despite others’ opinions.

Harry was thoughtful for a few moments before speaking. “How about we go for a walk then?”

Louis’s brow furrowed as he looked up at Harry. “But the party? Gryffindors never get to celebrate like this.”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t think I’d be missing much.”

Louis smiled for the first time since the disastrous game.

“Thank you,” he whispered before pulling Harry down for a kiss.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time the Hogsmeade trip rolled around two weeks later, the school had quieted down about the Quidditch match. Everyone except the Slytherins that is. They still shot Louis extra cruel glares, but he was beginning to adjust. Being a social pariah was something that one could grow used to he was learning. When he had to be around other Slytherins, he stuck by Leigh-Anne’s side. He actually thought that the girl might have been thankful for Louis’s newfound situation, as she’d never had a friend in Slytherin before. Of course, she still felt bad for him and was never anything but kind.

Other times, Louis stuck with the friends he had begun to make outside of Slytherin. Not only was Niall’s entire friend group enormously welcoming to the rejected Slytherin, but even Liam had begun to be less hateful. He seemed to almost feel sorry for Louis after the dreadful Quidditch match. In return, Louis had begun to cut back on his own hateful remarks to the Gryffindor. They weren’t friends by any means, but neither were hostile any longer.

To be quite honest, Louis was becoming happy with how his life was now. Possibly even happier than he had been with his Slytherin friends or amongst his family before Hogwarts. He’d never realized how unfriend-like his friends were until he suddenly had new ones that were entirely different. Louis hadn’t been friends with them but for a couple of weeks, and he already felt like he could trust them far more than he had been able to trust most of the people in his life.

The only thing Louis missed from before was Sierra, the only Slytherin friend he had believed he could trust. Now the only interactions he had with the girl were quick glances, with Sierra immediately turning away whenever Louis made eye contact. He had overheard several people discussing her friendship with Louis in whispers. Those things Louis had trusted her with weren’t so secret anymore.

Louis didn’t talk about his father. Either of them. And everyone knew not to bring them up. Everyone knew about the divorces, of course, but no one knew any intimate details of Louis’s homelife. Except Sierra. And now perhaps the majority of Slytherin house.

And Louis didn’t care. He didn’t because he wouldn’t let himself. Not if he wanted to keep any ounce of self-respect amongst his own house.

If the rumors had spread to the other houses, then no one seemed to care. Louis didn’t hear whispering from them at any rate, and none of his new friends brought it up. He could almost forget that people knew. Just like he forgot the glares, he forgot the whispers too.

Louis had been looking forward to this Hogsmeade weekend for ages. An entire day out of the castle split between alone time with Harry and time with their friends. An entire day where it would be relatively easy to avoid any Slytherins other than Leigh. It seemed like heaven to Louis.

“Still scheming about that blind date with Niall then?” Louis asked Perrie as she stood with him, Harry, and Liam in the line of students waiting to get their names checked off of Filch’s list before heading into the village.

Perrie nodded absentmindedly as she scanned the crowd.

“Miriam was supposed to be here ages ago,” Perrie complained. “I have to bring her to the Three Broomsticks to meet the ‘mystery boy.’”

“Where’s Keith?” Liam asked.

“Probably pissing his pants,” Louis couldn’t help but joke. He felt a rush of pleasure as he and Liam shared a friendly laugh at Keith’s expense.

Perrie ignored Louis’s joke as she gave up her search of the hall for Miriam.

“He’s already at the Three Broomsticks. Or at least he’s supposed to be.”

“How’d he manage that?” Harry asked. “Filch has only been letting people go for, maybe, fifteen minutes. He would have to have been at the front of the line.”

Perrie nodded. “Earliest I’ve ever known Niall to get out of bed when he didn’t have to. The two of them ate breakfast before Miriam was up just to avoid her this morning. If she doesn’t see Niall either, then it helps suspend the mystery.”

“I still don’t think this will turn out well,” Louis said. “That girl has been bouncing off the walls all week over this date. How’s she going to feel when she shows up and the boy she’s liked for years isn’t there like she thought he’d be?”

“I think Keith’s prepared for it to be awkward,” Harry said as he wrapped an arm around Louis’s waist. “That’s what he was telling me the other day, anyway. He says if he’s prepared for the worst, then he can’t be disappointed.”

“Maybe he can’t.” Liam shook his head. “But she sure could be.”

“There she is!” Perrie exclaimed, bounding over towards Miriam, who had just appeared in the hall. The Hufflepuff girl was fiddling with the hem of her sleeve when Perrie caught her attention and began dragging her over to the boys. Miriam turned sympathetically to the group of Ravenclaw boys behind their group to apologize for cutting in line, but they waved it off. Louis mumbled something about girls always being able to get away with no manners because boys thought it was the right thing to do, and Harry pulled him closer with a small smile.

“Ready?” Perrie asked Miriam as she bounced up and down while holding onto Miriam’s forearms.

“I think so,” she said, but she certainly didn’t sound sure about it. Harry got the distinct impression that she was trying not to be sick.

“It’ll be great,” Perre gushed. “You’ll have a fantastic time.” She stopped jumping in place and started to frown a bit. Miriam seemed startled at the sudden change in attitude. “Just promise me that you’ll give whoever it is a chance?”

Miriam frowned. “Of course. I agreed to the date. Can’t back out now.”

“Right,” Perrie confirmed, once again smiling brightly. “I’m sure you’ll have fun. If you need me though, I’m meeting Zayn, Jade, and Cameron at the Shrieking Shack after I drop you off.”

Miriam raised an eyebrow. “Sounds a lot like a double date.”

“Nah.” Perrie shook her head. “Zayn wants to spend time with them but hates feeling like the third wheel. He just asked me to tag along as a friend.”

Miriam glanced over Perrie’s shoulder at the three boys who were thinking the same thing she was: it sounded a lot like a double date.

“Whatever you say.” Miriam shrugged.

The five friends had now reached the front of the queue. Filch checked them all off much quicker than they would have expected after the long wait, and soon they were all packed into a carriage on their way to Hogsmeade.

“Oh God,” Miriam moaned as they neared the village. “I’m scared, Perrie.”

She reached out to grab Perrie’s hand in a death grip.

“It’ll be fine.” Perrie tried to sound reassuring while working to loosen Miriam’s hand before her own lost all circulation.

Their carriage had come to a stop now, and the three boys immediately climbed out as Perrie practically dragged Miriam from her seat.

“I thought you said you were ready.” The blonde was clearly aggravated as her friend attempted to hide behind her, as if her date was standing right outside the carriage.

Harry, Louis, and Liam looked on with amusement as Miriam’s reluctance to get out of the carriage caused Perrie to trip and fall off the carriage step and to the ground.

“Perrie!” Miriam called, finally rushing out of the carriage to check on her friend.

Perrie groaned as Harry reached down to help her up off the ground.

“I’m fine,” she assured Miriam. “Just got a bit dirty. It’ll dust off. At least you’re out of the carriage.”

Miriam turned to look in the direction of the Three Broomsticks as if remembering her own problems.

“It’ll be fine,” Louis assured her as he stepped forward and put an arm around her shoulders.

“Wait.” Miriam looked up at Louis in confusion. “Do you know who it is too?”

Louis shrugged. “Possibly.”

“I feel so out of the loop.” Miriam sighed.

“You won’t be much longer if you get your arse to the Three Broomsticks,” Louis reminded her.

“Right.” Miriam squared her shoulders and stepped out from under Louis’s arm. “I have to face him sooner or later. See you guys later.”

And with that she was gone.

Perrie shook her head as she continued to dust dirt off her skirt. “That girl can go from cowardly to brave in seconds, I swear.” She began running after Miriam with spots of dirt still visible on her arse. “Wait for me, Miriam! You don’t even know who it is.”

Harry stepped beside Louis, and they watched the two girls disappear down the street.

“I hope everything goes well,” Harry said as he slipped his hand into Louis’s.

Louis nodded in agreement. “Want to go to Honeydukes?” he asked eagerly.

“Course.” Harry smiled. “Haven’t had any of their chocolate in ages. I’m going through withdrawals.”

“We definitely need to go then. Liam,” Louis turned to look at the Gryffindor still awkwardly standing behind the couple, “you coming with us?”

Liam appeared startled that Louis Tomlinson of all people had just invited him some place and didn’t appear to mind him tagging along. What was happening with the world?

“Sure,” Liam finally replied after a moment’s hesitation. Harry smiled at him encouragingly as the three began to walk down the streets of the village. Within minutes, the three were chatting happily just as they had been the entire morning, no animosity at all between Liam and Louis.

XXX

Perrie peaked sneakily into the window of the Three Broomsticks as Miriam and Keith sat across from each other at a table in the far back.

“How are they doing?”

Perrie jumped slightly at Niall’s sudden appearance. In retaliation, she aimed a light slap at his shoulder.

“Fine.” She smiled brightly in satisfaction. “Much better than I’d been expecting. She seemed a little startled at first, but she’s been nothing but smiles with him.”

“Excellent.” Niall rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. “They just need to keep it up so Miriam’s off my back for good.”

Perrie nodded without paying Niall much attention. She stepped back from the window. “Well, I’m off to find Zayn, Jade, and Cameron. You meeting anyone or do you want to come with me?”

“And intrude on your date?”

“It’s not a date!” Perrie protested.

Niall snorted. “Whatever. I’ll still stick with finding someone else to hang out with. I think Liam’s third-wheeling with Louis and Harry right now, so maybe I’ll go take him off their hands.”

“I’m sure they’ll be grateful,” she laughed. “See you later, Niall.”

Niall spared one more glance into the Three Broomsticks. All seemed well. He wished his two friends the best as he set off for Honeydukes.

XXX

“I’ve always enjoyed Hogsmeade,” Harry recalled as he strolled through the village with his hand in Louis’s. Liam had been pulled away to Zonko’s an hour ago by an excited Niall. Harry shuddered to think what the Irish boy was buying at the joke shop, but he was sure he would discover the answer later.

“Mhm,” Louis hummed in agreement.

The air had that late October chill. Harry relished it, knowing that it would only get colder from here. Louis was shivering slightly, and Harry pulled him close to his side. It made it more difficult to walk, but neither boy seemed to mind as Louis nuzzled closer.

“I like the atmosphere of these sorts of villages,” Harry continued.

Louis frowned in contemplation. “They’re nice and all, but only in small doses. Cities are better.”

They were close enough that Louis could feel Harry’s shrug. “I like both,” he said. “Big cities and small villages and everything in between all have nice qualities.”

Louis looked up at Harry with a thoughtful frown. “Where’d you like to live though?”

“Is this about the London thing?” Harry asked. Louis was amazed that Harry could remember a random conversation they’d had more than a month ago. “I told you I’d live there.”

“But you didn’t say you wanted to live there.”

“I just said I like both big cities and small villages, didn’t I? For me it’s not about the actual place. I just want to live near people I love.”

Louis made a noise of surprise as he processed Harry’s words. Harry pulled Louis to a stop with his arm that was around the other boy’s waist and stepped in front of him.

“I would love to live in London with you, Louis.”

Louis’s stomach fluttered. He didn’t miss the fact that if Harry had just changed a few of his words, he would have been telling Louis he loved him. Was it too early for them to say that? Louis felt like it should be, but he had to force himself to hold back the words as he looked up into Harry’s eyes. After all, Harry did just imply that they might possibly live together someday. Saying they loved each other didn’t seem like such a big step.

Instead of allowing the words to leave his lips, Louis raised himself up on his toes and pulled the Gryffindor into a kiss. His hands buried themselves in the taller boy’s hair as Harry pulled him in closer by his waist. They lost track of how long they kissed in the middle of the street, but eventually, Louis was shivering despite the proximity to Harry and their activity. He pulled away, but placed one last peck on Harry’s lips in response to the boy’s pout.

“I think we should go somewhere indoors.” Louis smiled up at his boyfriend.

Harry seemed sad to stop the kissing, but he nodded in understanding. “Three Broomsticks?” he asked.

Louis nodded and began pulling Harry along by the hand.

When he entered the Three Broomsticks, Louis headed straight for the bar, intending to get some butterbeer for both him and Harry. It was surprisingly empty for a Hogsmeade weekend, and Louis fully expected Harry to get them seats at a table while he got the drinks. Instead, Louis spun around in answer to a tap on his shoulder that he felt while waiting for Madam Rosmerta. Harry was standing behind him and watching a table in a back corner. Louis started to question what Harry wanted, but as he followed the other boy’s line of sight, he saw Miriam and Keith at the table Harry was watching.

“They look cozy, don’t they?” Louis commented as he watched the couple laugh happily over something Keith said.

Harry nodded. “Niall’s going to be relieved. Now he can get all the girls he wants without dealing with an upset Miriam.”

Louis got their butterbeers and led Harry towards a table that was far enough from Keith and Miriam that they wouldn’t be spotted. He didn’t want to take chances that Miriam would still see Keith as a friend and decide to squeeze Harry and Louis into their date as well.

“I can’t believe it worked,” Harry commented. He was still watching Miriam and Keith with a sort of curiosity. “I thought for sure she’d be more upset that it wasn’t Niall.”

“I think towards the end there she had already begun to realize it wouldn’t be. Niall wasn’t exactly giving off the impression that he had a date this weekend. Besides, her and Keith have been friends since first year. There’s some sort of chemistry there. Even if she still doesn’t see him romantically, they can make it through a trip to Hogsmeade.”

“True.” Harry took a swig of butterbeer and finally turned to look at Louis. “I hope she starts to notice him now though. Keith’s certainly not going to pursue her anymore if she doesn’t want him.”

“Which could be good for him,” Louis pointed out. “If she doesn’t like him, then he has to move on eventually.”

“But would he move on, or would we have to put up with sad, unrequited love Keith?”

“Fair point.”

Harry noticed movement from Miriam and Keith’s table from the corner of his eye, and he turned to look at them once more.

“I don’t think we have to worry about the unrequited thing anymore,” he informed Louis.

Louis turned to look at the couple and let out a bark of laughter. Miriam had moved so she was now sitting in the chair beside Keith, and the couple was kissing rather enthusiastically for a place like the Three Broomsticks.

“That was so much easier than it should have been,” Louis commented.

Harry shrugged as he went back to his butterbeer. “Maybe they’re soulmates, and Miriam just needed a push to realize it.”

Louis’s eyes widened, and he set his butterbeer down so quickly that it sloshed around violently in the glass.

“You really believe in soulmates?” Louis asked, looking at Harry intently.

Harry held Louis’s gaze. It was quiet for a few moments before Harry spoke. “Yeah, I think I do, but I guess no one ever knows for sure, do they?”

Louis shrugged. “If anyone’s found theirs, then I assume they would.”

Harry was concentrating on running his finger along the rim of his glass of butterbeer instead of Louis’s face. “Not necessarily. There’s always the question of whether you’re getting carried away. What if you have these amazing feelings at the moment but you’re not really soulmates. It’s just temporary. How can you ever really tell?”

Louis snorted. “You’re asking the guy who’s watched two sets of parents get divorced?”

Harry finally looked up at him with a small smile. “Hey, I’m no stranger to the divorce thing either. Maybe not twice, but I get the whole watching your parents’ marriage end thing.”

“Right,” Louis nodded. “I tend to get so caught up with the scandalous pureblood divorce thing in my family that I forget others have actually gone through it too, especially you.”

Harry reached across the table to take both of Louis’s hands in his own. Louis looked up at him with a hesitant smile, causing Harry to beam back at him.

“It’s just.” Louis had to stop to think of the words he wanted to say. “A lot of the time I don’t think true love is real. Because of the divorces mainly. But then sometimes I get hopeful. I never know what to think.”

“No one does, Louis.”

“I guess.” Louis sighed.

“That’s why we have to try our hardest to find out,” Harry said, continuing to smile.

Louis squeezed Harry’s hands. “I guess we do.”


	10. Chapter 10

“These next few weeks,” Professor Chao told the muggle studies class at the end of his lecture the Monday after the Hogsmeade visit. “We will be focusing on something new with your group projects. I’ve come up with something for each group based on the make ups of your groups, and I’ve written down all of your instructions on these pieces of parchment.”

He began walking down the rows and distributing parchment to everyone.

“If you have any questions, please see me at some point before they are due. In the meantime, I also expect you to at least look over the reading for next class. It’s on the muggles’ World War II. I’m sure even those of you unfamiliar will be able to make some connections with Grindelwald’s rise to power, which was happening simultaneously.” The bell rang. “See you on Wednesday!”

Harry was inspecting the parchment he had been handed as he left the classroom with the other four boys. Louis’s hand on his waist prevented Harry from several run-ins with students and inanimate objects, not that he noticed.

“We each have to do a school project,” Harry groaned.

“No shit.” Niall rolled his eyes. “You already knew that’s what it was, Harry.”

“No,” Harry replied with a touch of annoyance. “I mean a project involving our fake muggle uni classes. Professor Chao has given us each a project that we might do in one of our classes for it.”

“You can’t be serious,” Liam groaned as he went to pull out his own parchment. The other three boys all followed suit.

They’d stopped walking now, and each boy ignored the annoyed grumbling of their classmates as they had to sidestep the group.

“Musical theory,” Niall said. “I don’t know shit about musical theory. Merlin, I wasn’t supposed to actually do any of this stuff.”

“Maybe it’ll come to you naturally,” Zayn suggested. “If you like music enough, I’m sure there’ll be stuff about it you just get, you know?”

Niall raised an eyebrow in Zayn’s direction. “No.”

“I have to draw something,” Zayn said. Before the other boys could jump in about him getting off easy, he continued, “With these specifics Professor Chao gave me. I haven’t done some of this stuff before. It’ll take forever.”

“At least you two have stuff you enjoy,” Liam whined. “I have to write a paper on political theory. Muggle political theory.”

“It shouldn’t be that different from wizard political theory,” Louis pointed out.

“Maybe not,” Liam said. “But since it’s as if I’m writing for a muggle university, I can only use muggle examples. I’m going to have to research all these muggle governments. There’s no way that’ll be interesting.”

“Tough luck, mate.” Louis patted Liam’s shoulder. neither Louis or Liam seemed to notice Harry’s smile at the gesture. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll have to research all this muggle law. Professor Chao even recommended that I look through actual court decisions and stuff in order to decide what to write on. I imagine I’ll be in the library with you quite a bit. Does the library even have this sort of stuff?”

“In the muggle studies section,” Harry spoke up.

“Oh,” Louis turned to his boyfriend with amusement. “You might be the only person to know that section exists.”

Harry smiled and shrugged.

“So.” Louis nudged Harry in the side. “What’s your project?”

“I’ve got to cook something.”

The other four boys all scoffed.

“Louis and I’ll be in the library for hours, and all you have to do it bake something?” Liam complained.

“Guess I chose the right course,” Harry gloated. At the other boys’ protests he continued, “In reality though it won’t be that easy. We’re talking a nice meal here, and I have to do it entirely without magic. Professor Chao recommended some recipe ideas, and he said that he’s spoken to the house elves about letting me use the kitchens. They’ve even been told to make sure I don’t use magic, and they have to report back whether I was a success or failure. Then, I have to write up a short report explaining what I did.”

“Still easier than the rest of us,” Louis muttered, although he was smiling slightly at Harry. “Except maybe Zayn. Still think he got off kind of easy.”

Zayn just shrugged in response as the five boys continued down the hall.

XXX

“Do we have to?”

“Yes,” Harry spoke sternly. “For the millionth time, you know you want to see this game, Louis.”

“No.” He buried his face in Harry’s shoulder. The two boys sat at the mostly deserted Gryffindor table. Most of the school had already headed to the Quidditch pitch for the Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff match. “All it’s going to do is remind me of how far behind Slytherin is for the cup.”

“You never know. Either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff could score zero points, and then you’d be tied.”

“For last,” Louis groaned.

“Better than being last and not being tied.”

Louis just groaned again.

“Come on, Lou.” Harry nudged his boyfriend’s head off of his shoulder. “We’ll miss the beginning of the match if we don’t hurry.”

Harry stood from the table with Louis’s hand in his own. Louis let out yet another groan as Harry tried to haul him up from the table.

“Lou,” Harry said warningly. With a sigh, Louis finally stood and followed Harry out onto the grounds.

It wasn’t hard to find the group. Louis stopped short a bit when he thought of his friends as “the group.” Neither Harry nor Louis had been a part of the group at the beginning of the year, but somehow they had seamlessly fit in along with Liam and Zayn. Before, Louis had always thought of it as Niall’s group because the chatty Irish boy had seemed like a ringleader of sorts. Niall talked to everyone, and he just naturally seemed to draw his friends together into a cohesive group of people when they might not have been friends otherwise.

Niall still clearly had a lot to do with the membership of a good deal of the group, but Louis couldn’t think of it as “Niall’s group” anymore. In fact, it was always either “the group” or, even more shockingly, “his group.” Once you were in, the illusion of Niall as ringleader began to fade away, and you began to see the closeness that everyone shared.

It filled Louis with a sense of pride that he could be an integral part to such a large group that demanded so much attention from the other students. He hoped the Slytherins hated him for it. It left Louis with a strong sense of vindication.

Upon reaching the group of ten, Harry and Louis slipped seamlessly in amongst their friends, with Louis next to Leigh and Cameron on the other side of Harry.

“How do you think they’ll do?” Harry asked Cameron, clearly referring to Cameron’s own house of Ravenclaw.

“Not sure.” Cameron shrugged. “We have a new captain this year. Who knows how he’ll be able to pull the team together.”

Louis leaned across Harry to get a better view of Cameron. “It’s Ben Greep, right?”

“Yeah,” Cameron said. “Good player in years past, but I’ve never seen him as much of a leader.”

Louis nodded. “Know what you mean. That could definitely hurt you guys, no offence.”

Cameron shook his head, brushing off the comment. “I agree,” he said with a frown. “Jade,” he motioned to his girlfriend who sat on his other side, “and I were talking about it earlier. I think it may have hurt our chances at the cup.”

“Or maybe not,” Jade interjected. “You never know. We could surprise everyone.”

“That we could,” Cameron agreed.

“We’ll see about that,” Louis smirked. The friendly house banter continued throughout the game, and Louis had never realized how fun rivalries could be when they weren’t vicious. It was a nice change.

In the end, Ben Greep proved himself to be an average, if not particularly good, captain from what Louis could tell. He was secretly (Well, not too secretly. He had to brag a little.) pleased that Ravenclaw wouldn’t be too tough of a competitor after only scoring minimal points against Hufflepuff. They’re defense was the best, keeping Hufflepuff at a relatively low score even though they won. Neither team had managed to reach Gryffindor’s level from last match at any rate, and Louis thought his team might be able to still win the cup this year if they could pull it together.

XXX

The game had put Louis in a good enough mood that he was perfectly willing to spend the entirety of Sunday in the library with Liam working on their respective parts of their muggle studies project.

“Law is so boring,” Louis moaned as he flipped through the pages of A Wizard’s Guide to English and Welsh Muggle Law (46th edition). It had seemed like the most basic book to start with, but Louis didn’t get it at all. There were laws about stealing music, not CDs or whatever the hell muggles used but the music itself. How did muggles steal soundwaves? The book said something about digital music, and while Louis was sure that term had come up in class at some point, it still made no sense to him. If only Harry were there. He’d be able to explain.

“How’s politics going?” Louis asked as he set the boring law book aside. Liam had been reading something about Marxism for at least half an hour and seemed to be getting more out of his book than Louis was. Louis had only heard of the system of government in passing before, as it wasn’t used by any wizard governments, but he knew enough to know it sounded just as boring as any other type of government.

“Fine,” Liam answered shortly, remaining engrossed in his book. When Louis continued to stare, Liam sighed and set the book down. “You’re not going to let me read, are you?”

Louis smiled. “Only after we take a break.”

“Fine.” Liam leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “What do you want to talk about during our break?”

“What’s so fascinating about Marxism?” He just had to know.

Liam looked thoughtful before shrugging. “I don’t know. Just a different way of thinking, I suppose. These communists see things so differently from us, and I guess it’s just making me think about things.”

Louis raised an eyebrow. “You’re not becoming a Marxist on us, are you, Payne? Not that I have any large objections about whatever the hell you want to think, but I’m not so sure the ministry will take to kindly to you going on about a different form of government than the one you’re working for.”

“I’m not becoming a Marxist,” Liam said with a roll of his eyes. “It’s just interesting to hear another perspective.”

“Glad to know you’re enjoying your project.”

“I suppose there could be worse things to study if I were to go to muggle university. What about you? Finding law interesting?”

Louis snorted.

“Is it really that bad?” Liam questioned.

“Don’t get me wrong, the arguing in court thing still sounds fun. It’s the actually knowing the law part that’s hard. Law books are not written for pleasure reading, let me tell you.”

“Neither were political manifestos, but I’m at least getting an interesting perspective.”

“Yeah, but they were trying to convince people, weren’t they? They had to get people to actually read them. With laws, the convincing was already done, or didn’t need to be done depending on the government, I suppose.”

Liam frowned as he considered Louis’s words. “That’s an interesting way of looking at things.”

Suddenly, Louis laughed. Liam looked startled, and Louis quickly qualmed his laughter before they could get scolded by the librarian.

Louis explained, “I just realized that your fake muggle uni studies are on getting laws passed, and mine’s on arguing those same laws.”

Liam watched Louis with apprehension. “If that’s funny to you, then I really think you need to take a break from this law reading.”

Louis’s laughter suddenly disappeared, and a frown formed on his face. “I really do,” he muttered before burying his head in his arms. Liam reached over to pat him half-heartedly on the shoulder before returning to his reading.

XXX

Somehow, Louis got through his fake muggle university law project. He felt a sense of resentment towards the other boys, who all seemed fulfilled after finishing up their own projects. Harry, in particular, went on and on about how proud of his cooking he was, and Louis was happy for him. Ecstatic even. He loved having an excuse to shower Harry with compliments.

He just wished that he’d gotten something more than a grade out of his own project. It wasn’t that he was ever going to become a muggle lawyer, but Louis knew all too well the feeling of really not knowing what to do with his life. The project was only a reminder of it.

It was now December. The school year was nearing its halfway point, and soon, Louis would be thrust into the real world with no idea about what he was going to do to support himself.

Quidditch was the only thing he enjoyed doing that anyone got paid for, but Louis wasn’t naive enough to believe he had a chance at playing professionally. Louis should have had some inheritance, just as the majority of purebloods still had to look forward to, but Louis had given up claims to one father long ago and had no legitimate claims to an inheritance from the other, especially with the newly finalized divorce. Louis was on his own with no ideas for a source of income.

The thought was weighing on him more as the year flew by. Louis knew he wasn’t doing a good job hiding his worrying from Harry, but it was a bit difficult when it was all he could think about. The Gryffindor boy didn’t understand what had Louis so upset, and he had been hard-pressed to find out. Louis wanted to tell him. He really did. But he didn’t want his fears to be pushed aside as ridiculous or have Harry falsely encourage him that things would be fine, and that’s just what his boyfriend would do.

“Louis.” Harry’s voice saying his name broke Louis out of his thoughts. The two boys were sitting on a wall in one of the courtyards of Hogwarts. Lous cherished any alone time he managed to get with the Gryffindor, and he hated the fact that he was too distracted lately to properly enjoy it.

“Hm?” Louis hummed as he turned his attention back to Harry.

Harry was watching Louis closely, causing the Slytherin to bite down on his lip in anticipation. Lately, he’d lived in constant fear that Harry would question him about his worries to the point where Louis wouldn’t be able to lie anymore.

Harry sighed. He seemed to be fighting between pulling the information out of Louis and letting Louis come to him if he wanted. Louis really hoped the later would win, just as it had every day prior to this.

“Louis.” It was clear by Harry’s tone that the former was actually winning out. Louis felt his stomach rolling in anticipation.

“Yeah?” He had no choice really. If Harry questioned him, Louis was going to tell the truth. He couldn’t add lying to his list of worries.

There was a moment more of hesitation before Harry said it. “Please tell me what’s been bothering you. It’s killing me not knowing, Lou.”

Harry looked at him with wide eyes, and Louis’s heart lurched. He had to tell him. It was as if he had no choice in the matter.

He reached out to stroke Harry’s cheek lightly with his thumb. Harry sank into the light touch, and Louis smiled in spite of himself. Harry caught Louis hand and pressed a kiss into the palm while wearing a grin of his own. The Gryffindor entwined their hands together and placed them in his lap before turning his entire attention once more to what Louis had to say.

“It’s complicated,” Louis sighed. Harry squeezed his hand, as if assuring him that he had all the time in the world to explain. “I guess it’s just life after Hogwarts. I don’t know what I’m going to do, Harry. As a job, I mean. How am I supposed to support myself? I don’t have any interest in anything. Am I going to end up at some job I loathe going to every morning just so I can buy food and a place to live? I don’t want to live like that.”

A frown was crinkling Harry’s forehead. “You like Quidditch,” he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I can’t play professional Quidditch,” Louis pointed out, mimicking Harry’s matter-of-fact speech.

“Why not?” And Harry actually seemed confused, which baffled Louis.

“Professional Quidditch is one of those dream careers. It’s what every little wizard and witch wants to do, but when they get older, they realize it’ll never happen and choose something practical.”

“Some people do it,” Harry pointed out. “Otherwise, there’d be no professional Quidditch. Besides, some kids want to be a teacher or work in the ministry or something, but then decide on something else. Kids are just indecisive. The ones who really want to do something work hard enough to do it.”

“That’s a really optimistic way of looking at it.” Louis leaned his head down on Harry’s shoulder and held Harry’s waist with the hand that wasn’t already in one of Harry’s. “I’m not that optimistic.”

“You should be,” Harry said. “Especially about Quidditch. You’re a brilliant player. Brilliant. I know you could make it if you just tried.”

Louis shook his head as best he could without lifting it from Harry’s shoulder. “There’s, like, a one in a million chance I’d succeed. I can’t live with those odds.”

“A one in a million chance that you could do the only thing you really want to do. Besides, you’re not giving yourself enough credit. There are less than a million witches and wizards in Britain that are going to try out for any openings this year because they’re just as doubtful as you. That automatically means that your odds are better than one in a million.”

“Look, Harry.” He lifted his head up to look Harry in the eyes. “I appreciate what you’re doing. I do. But I’m not trying out for any professional Quidditch teams. Okay? Can we talk about something else? My future depresses me.”

Harry looked like the last thing he wanted to do was drop the subject, but he nodded anyway and started to tell Louis all about Liam’s misadventure in the loo in the middle of the previous night.


	11. Chapter 11

The next Quidditch game of the season came up fast. Louis knew from Liam that the Gryffindor team was feeling pretty cocky over their landslide win against Slytherin. Not to mention, they’d be playing against Ravenclaw, who hadn’t fared too well against Hufflepuff.

On the morning of the game, the majority of the school seemed to be siding against Ravenclaw. More than half of Hufflepuff house wore Gryffindor colours, still thankful for their own win against Ravenclaw and probably thinking Gryffindor legitimately had a better chance. Some of the Slytherins were dressed in blue and bronze, never ones to side with Gryffindor, no matter what the odds, but most remained in their own Slytherin colours, not wanting to support any house that wasn’t their own. Louis himself remained in his usual green and silver, but more from a wish not to be attacked than anything else. He had wrapped a Gryffindor scarf around his neck once Harry handed it to him in the stands, but that was the extent of outward support.

Louis raised an eyebrow at Zayn as the Ravenclaw boy cheered for Liam when his name was announced.

“What?” Zayn questioned once he noticed Louis’s look. “I want Ravenclaw to win, but I can still show some support for my friend.”

“And that’s the only time this game you’ll be doing so,” Jade informed him with a sharp warning look. She was decked out in her house colours and was cheering louder than anyone else around them, except Niall.

Niall was quite the sight to behold. While many of the Hufflepuffs had taken their loss to heart and supported Gryffindor, Niall had apparently been unable to side with either team. He was decked out in both house colours and was cheering for both teams with an equal intensity. Louis didn’t know how he would have a voice after the game.

Sure enough, the teams were well matched. Gryffindor, despite their domination of Slytherin several months before, hadn’t been that strong of a team in years, and their initial win of the season seemed to have made them too confident. Ravenclaw, also not a strong contender this season, were more aware of their strengths and weaknesses after their loss, and this was clearly working to their advantage. Even with their subpar captain, Ravenclaw was playing impressively.

“They’re going to win,” Louis stated not that far into the game, after Ravenclaw’s keeper stopped an incoming quaffle. “Ravenclaw, I mean.”

“What makes you so sure?” Harry asked with mock offense.

“They’re thinking clearer. They know what they need to do. Gryffindor is too confident. It’s working against them. Mark my words, someone on that team is going to make a huge mistake, and that’ll work in Ravenclaw’s favor. As long as Greep isn’t so incompetent of a captain to pick up on it, Ravenclaw will win.”

Louis was right. Ravenclaw won with enough points to help them surpass Hufflepuff in the competition for the cup, although not enough to surpass Gryffindor who remained in the lead despite their loss.

“That was brilliant, Louis,” Harry went on as they made their way back up to the castle. He didn’t seem the least bit upset that his house had just lost for the first time this season. “The way you knew that. You really are brilliant at Quidditch. You understand it more than anyone I know, including Liam, and Liam goes on about it every day.”

Louis shrugged, wishing Harry would just drop it. “I’ve grown up with it, so I guess I’ve just picked up on those sorts of things over the years.”

“It’s more than that,” Harry insisted. “Most of the kids here have grown up with it, but hardly any of them know Quidditch as well as you do.”

Harry had stopped walking now and positioned himself in Louis’s path.

“Harry,” Louis began in a warning tone. He knew where this was going.

“Louis.” Harry placed his hands on Louis’s shoulders. “I’m serious. You have to give it a shot.”

“No!”

Harry took a step back from Louis, startled.

“I’m serious, Harry. Drop it.”

He shrugged Harry’s hands off his shoulders and stepped around the Gryffindor in order to continue up to the castle. He made it a few feet before looking behind to see if Harry was following. He was, but his eyes remained firmly planted on the ground in front of his feet.

Louis sighed. He hadn’t wanted to hurt Harry. He really hadn’t. He just couldn’t bear to talk about it.

“Harry,” he said softly. He wasn’t sure if his voice would carry over the space between them, but Harry looked up with a nervous glance, as if he was worried he would be rebuffed even more.

Louis held out his hand and offered a smile. “Come on,” he said, nodding towards the castle.

The smile that broke out on Harry’s face caused Louis’s stomach to flutter as his hand fit into Louis’s. The two boys chatted happily as they continued back towards the castle, with all talk of Louis’s future dropped.

XXX

“This is impossible,” Louis groaned.

The five boys had set up camp in the library in order to work on their latest muggle studies project. The one due in just over a week. Louis had thought they weren’t procrastinating, but now he found himself wishing for all the time they had wasted.

“No uni student can really be expected to buy Christmas presents of any kind,” Louis continued. “I have exactly zero pounds in order to buy my mum, sisters, and each of you blokes presents. You wouldn’t object to air, would you?”

“Think I got enough of that meself,” Niall stated, even as he remained focused on his own parchment.

“What are you doing then?” Louis asked the Irishman.

“I actually have income that I’ve saved up from my performances,” Niall pointed out as he looked up at Louis. “What about you? Aren’t you working in that cheap muggle restaurant?”

“Yes,” Louis spat out in annoyance. “But, apparently, muggles don’t like paying people well, and according to Professor Chao, my hypothetical self has spent it all on beer.”

Niall snorted. “Sounds about right, mate.”

“Just get creative,” Harry spoke up from where he was sitting next to Louis. “There are lots of things that don’t cost any money.”

“Like what exactly?” Louis asked skeptically.

Harry shrugged.

“Thanks, Haz. That’s helpful.”

“Your Christmas presents,” Harry muttered as he turned back to scribble something down on his parchment. He was lucky he was cute.

“What are you doing then?” Louis asked, aiming a poke at Harry’s side. “You don’t even have a job.”

“Told you.” Harry still didn’t look up from the parchment. “There are always gifts that don’t involve money.”

“Yet you can’t share these things with me.”

“Spoil the surprise,” he muttered. Louis got the distinct impression that Harry really didn’t want him to know whatever he was planning and wasn’t just joking around. Louis wondered if it didn’t have something to do with his real life Christmas present. He wanted to press the issue further, but he knew he needed to focus on the project in front of him. In fact, it made him more adamant because he suddenly realized that his hypothetical Christmas present for Harry needed to be just as good as Harry’s hypothetical, and possibly real, Christmas present for him. It was almost as much pressure as the real present Louis had purchased by owl order several weeks ago. At least his real self had a bit of spending money.

The project was turned in a week later, with Louis deciding that each of the three boys would be getting IOUs except Harry who Louis cooked a hypothetical meal for. Louis even went so far as to describe each food, and Harry insisted that someday he would make Louis’s first cooking experience a reality. As for his hypothetical gifts to his family, Louis had settled on buying some cheap items using a credit card (an odd muggle thing that Harry had informed him about), and he hoped Professor Chao would be impressed enough that Louis knew what a credit card was that he wouldn’t count points off for that.


	12. Chapter 12

The Saturday after the boys turned in their latest muggle studies assignment was their last Hogsmeade trip of the calendar year. It was also the last time Louis would really get to spend with Harry before Harry went home to his family and Louis settled into a lonely Christmas at the castle.

“There’ll still be other people around. It’s not like I’ll be entirely alone,” Louis rambled as he and Harry sat cuddled up in the Three Broomsticks.

“About that,” Harry said. “I actually think I may stay at the castle for Christmas.”

Louis looked up sharply, having to crane his neck to see Harry because of how close they were sitting.

“But you never stay at the castle?”

Not that he’d paid that close attention to Harry in years past. Really, he hadn’t.

“I know.” Harry was fumbling with his sleeve instead of looking at Louis. “I just didn’t want you to feel alone. Besides, this is our last Christmas at Hogwarts, and I’ve never spent a holiday here. It would be a nice experience. Gemma did it some, and Mum didn’t mind. I wrote to her the other day to ask about it. She seemed fine. I’ll get to see her every Christmas after this anyway, I suppose.”

He still wasn’t looking at Louis, and Louis laughed a bit. Harry glanced up startled.

“No,” Louis stated, scared that he’d made Harry think he was laughing at him. “I’m laughing because I’m happy.” Louis could immediately feel Harry relax beside him. “That’s really nice of you, Harry. You didn’t have to choose me over your family.”

“I see them every Christmas,” Harry shrugged. “This is the first one I get to spend with you.”

Louis felt the usual fluttering in his stomach that happened every time Harry did something amazing. He should have been used to it by now, but Louis didn’t think that was ever going to happen.

“I suppose it is,” Louis murmured quietly. The two boys were smiling widely at each other. Neither one could fully believe that this relationship was really happening after six years of keeping their distance, but here they were almost four months in and going strong.

XXX

“You’d think,” Niall said with a mouth stuffed full of food, “that more people would have been interested in staying for our last Christmas in the castle.”

It was Christmas morning, and the five friends who had stayed in the castle were continuing to disregard the house tables as they had all Christmas break. Harry had come down from Gryffindor tower with Liam to discover Niall and Zayn already seated across from each other at the Ravenclaw table, and not an eyelash had been batted when they were joined by the two Gryffindors. Louis was the only one missing, and Harry had kept casting glances at the entrance since he sat down next to Niall.

“Relax,” Liam muttered as he buttered some toast. “We’ve only been here about five minutes. It’s not like he’s late for anything.”

Liam’s words had gotten Zayn’s attention, and the Ravenclaw was now watching Harry closely.

“What’s with you?” he finally asked when Harry was unable to resist another glance towards the door. “You look like you’re scared you’re about to get stood up on a date.”

Niall spoke without bothering to look up from his food. “Is it his present? Did you get him something that’s got you worried?”

Harry turned to the Hufflepuff, startled. “How’d you know?”

Niall shrugged, still shoveling food in his mouth.

“It’s Christmas, so it fits. I don’t think you have anything to worry about though, mate. You seem to be a good gift-giver if what you gave me is anything to go by. Thanks, by the way.”

This led to all four boys exchanging thank yous for their presents from each other. Harry gave them all as much sincerity as he could while he continued to be distracted by the lack of Louis’s presence.”

“For Merlin’s sake,” Liam said with a growl. “What the hell did you even give him?”

“Nothing.” Harry shrugged.

“Obviously something,” Niall said. “I can feel your constant fidgeting, mate.”

Harry scooted slightly farther down the bench to put more space between him and Niall, while paying no attention to the other three boys’ scoffs. Once Harry looked back at his friends, he noticed they were all looking at him expectantly.

Harry sighed. “It’s really not that special. It’s just that I’ve never had to buy him a present before, and I gave him both his birthday and Christmas ones last night before going to bed. That’s two chances to screw up.” He tapped his fork on his plate. “Surely, he’ll be here soon?”

Right after Harry’s statement turned question, Louis came bustling into the Great Hall. Harry noticed him immediately and waved to get the boy’s attention. Louis came over to them with a smile and promptly plopped himself down next to Harry before proceeding to pile sausages onto his plate.

It took a bit for Louis to realize that the other four boys were watching him. He froze before slowly lowering his fork. “What?”

“Nothing,” Harry stuttered. He turned back to his own plate and took a large bite of eggs.

Louis shrugged, turning back to his food. He ate one sausage link before leaning over to whisper in Harry’s ear. “Thanks for the presents.”

Harry felt the tension leave his body as he heard the genuine thankfulness in Louis’s voice. His face lit up as he suddenly felt lighter than air. “You’re welcome,” he told Louis. “And thank you for your present too.”

Louis smiled as he leaned in to kiss Harry. It was brief but enough to elicit rude jokes from the other three boys. Louis and Harry laughed as they pulled apart but otherwise ignored the verbal jabs.

XXX

The five boys entertained themselves all morning with a snowball fight, but by lunch time, they had tired of the cold. There was some discussion of where to spend the rest of their day. Since the start of break, they had been entering each other’s common rooms regularly. There were few people around to care, and there weren’t many other options for company.

Somehow, they decided upon Ravenclaw tower today. Mostly because it was the one they had visited the least so far. Niall had a weird fascination with the Slytherin common room and had constantly pestered Louis to go. With both Harry and Liam in the group, the Gryffindor common room had been a frequent hangout spot. Hufflepuff was the smartest option whenever they thought they might want to pop into the kitchens for a snack. But over the course of break, and aside from Zayn who lived there, the boys had only entered the Ravenclaw common room twice.

“Hate these towers,” Niall complained as they walked up the many flights of stairs that led to the Ravenclaw common room. This was a typical behavior whenever they went to Gryffindor tower too. “Don’t know how you Ravenclaws and Gryffindors do it. Us Hufflepuffs and Slytherins have it made in that respect.”

Niall and Louis fist bumped at that, but neither seemed to actually be having problems with the climb, which led to their complaints being ignored.

Finally, they reached the door that led into the common room, and the boys all quieted to watch as Zayn banged the large bronze knocker.

“What is one spell that can never be reversed?” the door asked.

All eyes turned to Zayn, but the Ravenclaw was actually looking at them. A smirk crossed his face as he took in their complete confusion. “Any ideas, boys?” he asked, relishing in their cluelessness.

Zayn turned back towards the knocker. “I’ll have to say Avada Kedavra. Death is the only method of complete and utter destruction. It can’t be reversed.”

“Good answer,” the door informed them before swinging open.

“I don’t know how you do that everytime.” Niall shook his head as he threw himself onto one of the blue couches littering the room.

“I’d be locked out for sure,” Louis agreed as he snuggled into Harry’s side on the couch opposite Niall.

Zayn joined Niall and Liam on the couch they occupied. “Not if you were a Ravenclaw. Besides, the entire system kind of bets on the fact that non-Ravenclaws won’t be able to answer the questions.”

Louis snorted. “It’s always nice to know how much smarter Ravenclaws see themselves.”

“Not smarter,” Zayn stated. “We’re just open to thinking about things and using our minds more than most others. You four immediately dismissed the question because you assumed you couldn’t answer it. I actually thought about it and came to an answer that any one of us could have gotten.”

The four boys were all watching Zayn now with wonder.

“You are such a Ravenclaw,” Louis scoffed. Zayn only shrugged before getting up to wander towards one of the many bookshelves that lined the walls. If they were going to hang out in here all day, he might as well flip through one. The other boys got annoyed when Zayn drew the entire time they were together. A book would help fill in the lull in conversations without dragging his attention away completely.

When Zayn turned back to his friends with a book in hand, he discovered Louis still watching him with amusement.

“What?” he asked as he retook his seat.

“Such a Ravenclaw,” Louis repeated with a shake of his head. Zayn couldn’t tell if it was an insult or just a fact.

“Sorry, you lot are too boring hold my attention,” Zayn threw back. He had to duck the book that came flying at his head courtesy of a spell from the Slytherin.

“What do you know,” Louis remarked as he leaned back into Harry. “Books are good for something.”

XXX

“It’s been a good Christmas,” Harry remarked later that evening as the five boys had once again found their way to the Great Hall for Christmas dinner.

“That it has,” Liam agreed.

Harry happily picked up on the fact that Louis was currently sitting between him and Liam with no problems. In fact, if there had been any doubts about the two boys’ friendship before, they had all been erased this Christmas break. The five boys were closer than ever after spending days with no one but each other for company.

“Best Christmas I’ve ever had.” There was a note of honesty to Louis’s voice that caused the other four boys to pause, and Harry took his boyfriend’s hand in his own.

“Seriously,” Niall spoke up in an attempt to lighten the mood. “I don’t want this break to end. Wish we could just run around the castle with no school forever. This Christmas has been great.”

“We still have New Year’s,” Liam reminded everyone. “And the entire week leading up to it. Break’s not even close to over yet.”

The other boys muttered their agreement, but each knew that it was all downhill from there. School would be starting again much sooner than any of them were quite expecting.

XXX

Several owls came for the boys the next day from their friends who had went home for the holidays. They sent their best Christmas wishes, inquired if their presents had been acceptable, thanked the boys for the presents they have given them, and updated them on the outside world and their recent activities.

“Miriam and Keith have been seeing a lot of each other this break,” Niall stated suggestively as he summarized a letter Keith had sent the group.

“Relationship going well then?” Harry asked. He was always the one wanting to keep up with the latest romances in Hogwarts. Louis found it rather adorable, not that he’d ever admit it.

“Far as I can tell,” Niall told them as he continued to scan the letter. “Bear in mind though, they were friends since first year, and they live in neighboring towns. I’ve been hearing about their joint adventures during school breaks for years, so this isn’t really different. Except now they probably snog more than anything.”

“Which always adds a bit more flavor to any school holiday,” Louis stated with a smirk.

“Leigh’s doing well,” Louis continued, looking at another letter. “As is Jesy, who’s over at Leigh’s house. Although, you may want to watch out, Niall. Jesy doesn’t seem too happy about whatever you gave her for Christmas.” Louis raised an eyebrow at the Irish boy. “What is it anyway? She sounds like she plans to murder you.”

Niall shrugged. “I was only trying to be helpful. It’s not my fault if I just happened to overhear her mentioning something to Perrie.”

The other boys turned to the Hufflepuff with looks of curiosity, but he didn’t plan on filling them in.

“Perrie’s good.” Zayn spoke, pulling the attention away from Niall.

The other four boys all turned to him with knowing smiles.

“Is she?” Niall asked “We wouldn’t know since that happened to be the only letter here not sent to the entire group.”

Zayn blushed a light red, a look that was rather unknown on the boy. The others had discovered how easy it was to embarrass Zayn by talking about the bubbly Hufflepuff girl. It was quite the sight considering they each knew that Zayn had had his fair share of girlfriends in the past.

“She is,” Zayn confirmed. “She says that it’s been kind of nice to live a bit like a muggle for a week.”

Perrie was one of the two muggleborns in their group, along with Miriam.

“That’s nice, Zayn,” Louis continued to tease. “Why don’t you write back to her and wish her all our best while we write back to the people who actually bothered to care about the other four of us.”

“Sod off.”

At least a piece of toast was easier to avoid than a book.

“But, mate,” Liam said to Zayn. “Are you ever going to ask her out? You’ve been flirting for months now. I don’t remember you ever having a problem asking girls out before.”

“I did,” Zayn frowned. “Ask her out that is.”

Forks could be heard clattering as the four boys looked at Zayn in surprise.

“You did?” Harry questioned. “And she turned you down?”

Zayn frowned while moving a piece of ham around with his fork and nodded. “She said that she liked me too, but she wanted to get to know me as a friend first.”

It was quiet, and Zayn ventured a glance up at the other four boys, who now looked amused.

“So, let me get this straight,” Niall said with a grin. “You, Zayn Malik, who has dated almost constantly in the past but never actually stayed with a girl for long, are now friends with a girl because that’s more important to you than a potential relationship?”

Zayn nodded, frown still wrinkling his forehead although it seemed more out of annoyance with the boys than with his situation with Perrie. The other boys laughed, and Niall slapped a hand onto Zayn’s shoulder.

“Oh, God,” Louis chuckled. “Just watch. You two will be married within the next, oh, five years or so.”

“We’re seventeen, Louis, and not even dating.”

“Never underestimate the power of friendship.” Harry attempted to put on a wise tone. “You know she likes you because she admitted as much. You two have basically become best friends. Best friends with admitted feelings for each other. If that doesn’t spell out long term relationship, then I don’t know what does.”

“Harry’s right,” Niall agreed. “Honestly, if I know Perrie at all, she was probably a bit freaked out by your womanizing ways. It’s not that she doesn’t like you like that. Now that she knows she can trust you, she’ll want to be with you.”

“Maybe,” Zayn sighed. “I just don’t know when it’ll happen. And that’s fine, honestly. I like being friends with her, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it to become more than that if it was okay with her.”

“Trust us,” Liam said. “We’ve seen the two of you, and it won’t be that long now.”

“We’ll see,” was Zayn’s only response before the topic of Perrie was dropped for the day.


	13. Chapter 13

Aside from New Year’s Day, which was spent curled up in their beds with massive hangovers thanks to the mysterious firewhisky Louis had shown up with the night before, the five boys spent the rest of their break in much the same way that they had the beginning of it: together. They had each become well acquainted with the others’ common rooms by now, and there was a slight bit of sadness over the idea that they wouldn’t be able to visit when disapproving students came back to the castle.

By the end of break, the five boys had strengthened their friendships to a degree that Louis had never before experienced, and when Niall referred to them all as his brothers on the final day of break, Louis had to hide the surge of emotion that overcame him. They’d come a long way from the five boys who had been thrown together in a muggle studies group at the beginning of the year, and their final year was only half over.

Louis wondered what it would be like when the rest of their friends returned. He missed them, of course, but it would be odd seeing how they fit into the somewhat different dynamic the five boys had developed over Christmas.

Zayn had begun acting a bit odd whenever Cameron’s or Jade’s names were mentioned, and Louis got the impression that Zayn somehow felt he was betraying his longtime best friends with his newly strengthened friendships. Louis really thought Zayn shouldn’t have worried because, from what he knew, Zayn had been growing apart from his former best friends for years. Not that they weren’t still good friends, but Jade and Cameron had been a part of Niall’s group for years before Zayn had been pulled in. They were growing up and developing new friendships it seemed. Of course, Zayn would probably always be friends with Jade and Cameron, but it was just a fact of life that the specific dynamics changed.

Thoughts of Zayn’s friendships inevitably drew Louis to thoughts of his own. Even with the incredible friends he’d made so far this year, Louis couldn’t help but think sadly of Sierra every so often. He’d only voiced his feelings to Harry, as he didn’t want the others to know that he missed a person who had been so horrible to him. The fact of the matter was that Sierra had been his best friend since he was eleven, and Louis was feeling scarily similar to when his dad had been dragged away to Azkaban: as if someone he loved was gone forever and completely out of reach, even when he saw her every day.

The girl had done nothing but glance Louis’s way a few times in recent months. A couple of times, when Louis caught her eye, he thought he might have sensed a hint of regret, but it was gone so quickly that he never knew if it was real or imagined. He liked to think she was missing him as much as he missed her, but even if she did, no amount of apologizing would lead to him letting her back in his life. She had disappointed him too much. Those weren’t the kind of people he wanted as friends. If there was one thing this year had taught him so far, that was it.

XXX

“It was fantastic.”

Leigh was in the middle of an enthusiastic tale of her Christmas holiday, and Louis would have been listening intently if Sierra hadn’t taken a seat just several places down.

He was back at the Slytherin table for the first time since holidays began (as Louis had never been the first down to breakfast in order to choose their table), and it felt odd being in this spot of the hall. It felt even odder to not be eating with Harry, Liam, Zayn, and Niall. Louis loved Leigh and everything, but he did wish that he could eat breakfast with all of his friends. And Harry. Especially Harry.

“Louis,” Leigh-Anne called his attention back to her. She sighed as she tossed her own glance towards Sierra. “Come on.” She stood from the table and tossed her bag over her shoulder. “We need to get to our classes anyway. You don’t want to be late for muggle studies, do you?”

Louis smiled at her as he stood and grabbed his own bag. He let the thought of spending an hour with his closest friends distract him from the very audible scoff that Sierra threw his way upon hearing Leigh mention Louis’s next class.

XXX

School continued similarly to how it had before the holidays. The only difference was that Zayn found himself spending even more time with the four boys that he’d been around nonstop during Christmas. That is, whenever they could drag him away from Perrie and Louis and Harry weren’t off on their own. Niall and Liam made some jokes about needing to find girls if they were going to get ditched so much, but neither actually seemed to mind.

Not being able to spend time together in either of their common rooms, the library had become Perrie and Zayn’s go to spot to hang out with each other. It worked well considering their N.E.W.T.s were now fast approaching, a fact that became more and more obvious as January wore on. Everyone in their year was busy studying their arses off in order to get into the career they wanted.

Perrie, for her part, seemed rather unworried about the daunting tests. She’d told Zayn before that she didn’t really know what she planned to do, but she suspected that she’d get good enough N.E.W.T.s in whatever she was good in, which would then help point her towards a future career. Zayn figured that was a good way of looking at it when you had a good supply of optimism like Perrie, but that didn’t stop him from studying almost nonstop. He wasn’t sure what he planned to do in the future either, but he wanted to have his options as open as possible.

“Stop frowning, Malik. You’re going to permanently wrinkle your forehead.”

Zayn froze a bit as Perrie actually reached out to smooth the crease in his forehead that really was starting to become a permanent feature.

“Why did I take N.E.W.T. level potions?” he asked out loud, not really expecting Perrie to answer.

“I don’t know,” she said, leaning back in her chair and observing Zayn. “It does seem like a rather stupid thing to do.”

Perrie hated potions. She had immediately dropped it after fifth year when she got a P on her O.W.L. in the subject. It was just one of the many things Zayn had learned about her over the past couple of months.

“You’re too creative,” Perrie continued, “for something as rigid as potions where you have to follow all the instructions exactly. I don’t know why you thought you should take it all the way through seventh year.”

“I thought it would be useful,” he muttered. Their exchanges were quite repeatable as they complained non-stop about all of their worst classes, but somehow, Zayn still enjoyed them.

“I highly doubt you’ll be using them in whatever you end up doing anyway. Try to remember that before you have a breakdown.”

Zayn cracked a smile. “I’ll try.”

“Good.” Perrie leaned towards him once again to pat him on the cheek several times. Something that he would have never allowed anyone else to do. “It wouldn’t do to have Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected breakdown in front of the whole school.”

XXX

Harry read over the letter once more before sealing it into the parchment. He’d read it at least ten times already since writing it, but it needed to be perfect. He couldn’t risk any mistakes.

Finally feeling satisfied that it was as good as it was going to be, he stuck it in the envelope and sealed it before he could second guess himself. His owl was flying off with it moments later, and Harry watched the bird disappear through the sky as the words he’d read and re-read continued to run through his head.

_Dear Mr. Adorno,_

_I am writing to you about a potential player that I think you would be interested in knowing about here at Hogwarts. Louis Tomlinson is the current Slytherin team captain. Under his leadership, the Slytherin team has played at it’s best in years. I have enclosed in this letter the game records for the team since Louis joined, including Louis’s own personal statistics._

_It is my understanding that several of Yorkshire’s players will be retiring this coming season. Who better to replace them than a great player who’s young and just out of Hogwarts?_

_The Slytherin team plays against Hufflepuff in March, and I look forward to you being in the stands. You won’t regret it._

_Sincerely,_

_Harry Styles_

XXX

“This is ridiculous,” Cameron stated as he walked down the hall with Zayn and Louis. A Slytherin had just tripped Louis, who almost face-planted into the ground. The Slytherin boy was out of sight by the time Cameron and Zayn had assessed that Louis was all right.

“They can’t keep this up forever,” Cameron continued.

“They can, and they will,” Louis said forlornly. “If there’s one thing us Slytherins can do, it’s hold a grudge.”

“Yeah,” Zayn spoke up. “Well, if my experience is anything to go by, so can all of the other houses. In fact, I’m starting to think that grudges are a fault we all have pretty equally.”

“No.” Louis shook his head. “Slytherins and Gryffindors definitely beat you guys and the Hufflepuffs.”

“Definitely,” Cameron laughed. “But that’s not to say any of us suck at it.”

“I don’t get it,” Louis sighed. “This stupid rivalry thing we all have going on. It’s been almost thirteen years since the war ended, and Slytherin hasn’t popped out any terrible wizards again.”

“This all started way before the war though, Lou,” Zayn reminded his friend. “This shit has been happening since the founders were still alive and Slytherin decided a giant muggleborn-killing basilisk would be a good idea as a castle pet. Animosity that goes back to the tenth century isn’t going to end in a little more than a decade.”

“If ever,” Cameron said. “I think Slytherins and the other three houses are doomed to always hate each other.”

“Possibly,” Zayn admitted. He seemed ashamed to say so in front of Louis. “The only way I could see it change is if Slytherin had some amazing wizard that demanded respect from the other houses. Like a Slytherin Harry Potter or something. Course it would be best if the villain he had to fight was from another house and not Slytherin as well. Plus, you’d have to account for the other Slytherins, who may just distance themselves from the hero, and then that makes him an exception, so people still look down on the majority of Slytherins.”

“I get your point, Zayn,” Louis snapped. “It’s never going to happen. Slytherins are doomed to be loathed by everyone else for eternity.”

Zayn frowned. “I didn’t say that.”

“You might as well have. As if that far-fetched story will ever happen.”

“In the long stretch of history it might.” Cameron shrugged. “Give it another ten centuries or so. The pureblood mania has calmed down some since the war. That can only help things.”

Louis snorted. “I love your optimistic half-blood attitude, Cameron, but I can assure you that blood purity is still going strong. Do you think I’ve told my mum that I’m dating a half-blood, let alone one that lives with his muggle mum and stepdad?”

“I thought your mum was decent.” Zayn said.

“She is. I love her and all, but she was raised with that blood purity thing. She wouldn’t go all crazy about it like Dad would, but she wouldn’t approve. I can just picture it: her telling me she approves when it’s clear to everyone that she actually doesn’t.”

“You can’t keep it from her forever,” Cameron pointed out.

“Oh, I know. Trust me, she’ll know as soon as we’re out of this castle, but as long as we’re Hogwarts students, I’m withholding the information. This place has always been a safe haven from my family, and I want to keep it that way as long as I can.”

“Well.” Zayn clapped a hand onto Louis’s shoulder. “Good luck with that. Personally, I recommend throwing Harry at her before you drop the boyfriend bit. His dimples and charm will win over the coldest of hearts.”

Louis sighed. “I hope you’re right.”


	14. Chapter 14

February marked the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff match of the season, and Harry found himself growing increasingly on edge as the match approached. It wasn’t the usual excitement over seeing his house’s team play. Next month Slytherin would be facing off against Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuff’s performance in this game would determine Slytherin’s odds.

Hufflepuff’s defeat of Ravenclaw was still on everyone’s minds as the game approached, and with Gryffindor having beaten Slytherin so thoroughly at the beginning of the year, it was shaping up to be the biggest match of the year. With Slytherin still preparing to face Hufflepuff in a month, Harry knew that their morale would be at an all time low if Hufflepuff did too well against a team that had already beaten them.

According to Louis’s recounts of the Slytherin practices, nothing had improved. Harry had to stop Louis several times from angrily resigning his position as captain. None of his teammates wanted to listen to his authority, and from Louis’s perspective, none of them even wanted to win if it meant making Louis look decent.

Harry was beginning to wonder if he should have sent the letter at all. He had been confident that Louis could prove himself even with the previous events, but now Harry was becoming less sure. Louis was discouraged and almost seemed to be growing apathetic to the game he had always loved. Harry continued to keep the information about the letter to himself, not wanting to scare Louis into an even worse state with the knowledge.

Even Harry had been surprised when he’d received a reply from the scout two weeks later. They were always up for fresh talent from Hogwarts, he’d said. They enjoyed coming to Hogwarts matches, and he would be happy to come to the Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff one. Who didn’t enjoy a good game of Quidditch after all? The letter had also taught Harry that the scout was a former Hufflepuff. He didn’t know if that would be an immediate strike against Louis or not. It probably didn’t help at any rate.

But Harry couldn’t think about that now. The Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff game came first. That’s what he needed to occupy himself with. Everything else he would worry about later.

XXX

“It’s time for another part of your year-long group project,” Professor Chao informed them one day in the week leading up to the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match. It was the first time they’d done anything with the group project since the Christmas holidays. “You each have something different to do. Here are your instructions.” A wave of his wand sent each sheet of parchment to the correct student. “You may work on it for the rest of class. Come to me with any questions.”

Their group of five were already sitting near each other, so chairs were scooted until all five surrounded the desk Louis and Harry occupied.

“Long-term plans,” Niall read off the top of the parchment. “I don’t like the idea of long-term plans.”

“We have to plan for our fictional selves after uni,” Zayn paraphrased uselessly as all five read their own parchments. “What career we want, how we plan to get to the exact job position we want. Family and kids even.”

“I’m only seventeen.” Niall groaned. “How the hell am I supposed to know when I’m going to get married and have kids?”

“Just pick a number,” Liam said. “As if Professor Chao actually cares about when we plan to have kids or get married or whatever. Just say twenty-five or something. It’s reasonable.”

“That may work for all the family stuff,” said Zayn. “But what about the career stuff? Professor Chao wants a detailed career plan. Entry-level job up to our intended position, and he says here that we need to include a realistic time frame and smaller goals that’ll help us achieve it.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Niall was staring at the parchment as if it were written in Chinese.

“He’s included stuff for each of us on our fields to help,” Harry pointed out as he pulled another parchment out from behind the one describing the assignment. “It even has suggested reading here.”

“There are like ten books on this list,” Louis exclaimed loudly, looking at his own paper. “I can’t read ten books.”

“We have two months to work on this assignment,” Zayn pointed out.

Louis looked at Zayn as if he’d grown an extra head. “Ten books in two months? Are you insane?”

“It’s doable,” Zayn muttered, mostly to himself.

“Yours is probably more straight-forward than all ours anyway,” Harry pointed out to his boyfriend. “There are all these rules to becoming a lawyer. That should help you figure out how things should go.”

“I’ve never been more thankful for rules in my life.”

“How do you plan on something that’s determined by luck?” Niall asked, referencing his chosen fictional career as a musician.

“Write a plan and hope.”

“Thank you for that amazing advice, Liam. Why don’t you just plan my real career?”

Liam smirked, not offering a comeback.

XXX

“I have to say.” Niall was focused intently on the action of the game as he spoke to Harry. “I actually hope we lose. That’s the only time you’ll ever hear me say that, but I can’t bear to watch Lou next month if he has to face a winning Hufflepuff team.”

Harry glanced at Louis, who was too focused on the game to pay any attention to what Harry and Niall were quietly discussing beside him.

“I know what you mean,” Harry sighed.

He kept an arm around Louis for the entire game as some form of reassurance. Louis didn’t complain about Harry’s coddling, which Harry took as a sign that he was just as worried about the outcome as Harry thought he was. Every time Hufflepuff scored, Harry could feel Louis tense, and every time Gryffindor scored, Louis would relax just the slightest bit into Harry’s side.

It was a long match, both because Harry had an on edge boyfriend beside him and because it took the seekers longer than normal to locate the snitch. Harry had never been more relieved to see the Gryffindor seeker holding up the snitch to the crowd. The girl had never been very good, and Harry considered her catch a miracle. The final score left Gryffindor only winning by fifty points, but it was enough to leave them in the lead for the cup. It was also just enough to hopefully give Louis the ego boost needed to pull his team together.

“How are you feeling?” Harry asked Louis as they walked back up to the castle together after the match. His arm was still firmly around the Slytherin’s waist, and he could feel the leftover tension that had yet to disappear.

“I’m fine,” Louis sighed. “As good as I can be at least.”

It was quiet until they reached the entrance hall and the passageway that led off towards the Slytherin common room.

“I think I’m going to head back, spend my day in the dormitory.”

“You sure?” Harry asked, watching Louis closely. It was still relatively early in the day, just a bit later than their typical lunch time. On a normal day, there was no way Louis would go sit in his common room for the rest of the day. “We could always go back out on the grounds or just walk around the castle. Whatever you want.”

Louis smiled up at him. “Thanks, Harry, but I really think I’m going to head back to the common room. Maybe if I start strategizing now, we’ll have a chance.”

“You already have a chance, Lou.” He watched Louis for a few moments, debating whether he should let him go without a fight. Finally, he sighed and said, “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast.”

“See you in the morning,” Louis said with another smile. He went up on his toes to kiss Harry. It wasn’t as chaste as their usual public kisses, as if Louis was trying to stress even more that he was fine. After pulling away, Harry kissed him once more on the cheek.

“Bye, Louis.”

“Bye. See you tomorrow.”

Louis squeezed Harry’s hand once more before disappearing down the passageway. Harry didn’t turn to start towards his own common room until Louis was out of sight.

XXX

The next morning started off like any other. Louis came in at just about his usual time for a Sunday. Harry knew this because he had been watching for the other boy. He knew that Louis was probably feeling much better than he had yesterday, but he couldn’t squelch the protective part of him that wanted to make sure.

Louis sat down at the Slytherin table with Leigh. Both were smiling and chatting just as happily as usual. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but continued to watch Louis throughout the meal. Partly because Louis wouldn’t stop glancing his way either. It was a game they had developed recently. It took them ages to eat a meal these days. Between the smiles and the funny faces, it was hard to focus on the food.

This continued until the mail came. Harry paid the owls that landed around him no mind as none seemed to be coming for him. There was a slight bit of curiosity as he watched an owl land in front of Louis. Drawing from past observations, Harry knew it was the owl that always brought letters from Louis’s mum. That could result in two drastically different moods with Louis. Either his mum wrote about something wonderful that put Louis in a better mood for days, or she wrote about something that would bring back the horrible mood from yesterday ten fold.

Harry’s stomach dropped as he watched Louis’s mood visibly dampen as he read the letter. Harry’s fork had dropped loudly to his plate by the time Louis looked up from the parchment and made eye contact with Harry across the hall. Even Liam was watching the Slytherin table now, and as Louis stood and began walking quickly from the hall, Liam said, “go,” and gave Harry a small push. Leigh had also halfway rose to follow, but seeing Harry, she settled back into her seat, still watching Louis leave anxiously.

Harry was quick, but Louis was still out of the hall before he was. There was a brief moment of panic when Harry thought he might have lost his chance to catch the other boy, but upon entering the entrance hall, Harry found Louis leaning against a banister as he sat on one of the lower stairs of the staircase. No doubt he had been expecting Harry to follow, and Harry was thankful that Louis was allowing him to be around instead of running away.

“You want to tell me what it says?”

Harry motioned towards the letter that was still clutched in Louis’s hand. A pureblood family crest stood out in midnight black on the flap of the envelope, split down the middle where Louis had ripped the letter open. It wasn’t the Tomlinson family crest that had been present on all of Mrs. Tomlinson’s previous letters.

“It’s done,” Louis said. His voice was raspy, as if he were holding back most of his emotions. Even with his obvious mood, Harry couldn’t detect any tears in Louis’s eyes.

Harry decided against answering with words. Instead, he pulled Louis close and waited patiently for the explanation to come. Louis buried his face into Harry’s chest, not seeming to care about how distraught he looked as the occasional student walked by.

“The divorce,” Louis finally choked out. “It went through. I knew it was coming, but it still- My mum’s moved out of the Tomlinson family house. She’s back at my grandparents’ house with all my sisters. Since she’s not a Tomlinson anymore, she doesn’t get their family money, you see. And her family never had that much to begin with. It’s why it was always so important that she marry a well-off pureblood. Now, she’s failed at that twice, and my grandparents aren’t happy, especially with all my sisters in that small house too. They’ve threatened to kick her out after a year if she doesn’t remarry, but no respectable pureblood will marry someone divorced not just once but twice. If she marries anyone else, even a half-blood, then she’ll be disowned, and her and all my sisters will be homeless. I know my grandparents will do it. Merlin, Harry. I don’t know what to do.”

“There’s nothing you can do.”

And Harry wished with everything he had that he could give a different answer, one that could fix everything and take away all of Louis’s pain, but he couldn’t.

Louis nodded into Harry’s chest. In the quiet, Harry heard sniffling that signaled that Louis’s tears had finally broken free.

“Let’s go find an empty classroom or something,” Harry suggested. Louis stood up and followed Harry without protest. It didn’t take long to find a fitting classroom. They’d each used their fair share of classrooms over the years, especially recently when they wanted to spend time with their friends in other houses, and Louis and Harry hadn’t had many snogging sessions that weren’t in an empty classroom.

This particular one never seemed to be used anymore, and it was one that Louis and Harry frequently used. Harry performed a quick locking spell as soon as they were in. It wouldn’t keep anyone in the school out, but they would at least have a short warning before any intruders could perform Alohomora.

When he turned his back towards the door, Harry found Louis sitting at the front of the room up on the teacher’s desk. Harry made his way past all of the student desks and clambered up to sit next to Louis. They sat there for fifteen minutes with no words spoken. Their only contact was Louis reaching out to grasp Harry’s hand.

Tears continued to run down Louis’s face intermittently, and finally, Harry couldn’t keep himself from speaking. “I want to help you. I want to do something so badly, but I can’t.”

Louis took a sharp breath as he looked up at Harry. It was the first time they’d made eye contact since they entered the classroom, and Harry was startled by the emotion Louis’s showed.

“I know that, Harry. I don’t expect you to do anything. This isn’t your fault. You shouldn’t feel guilty.”

“I don’t feel guilty,” he explained. “But it hurts me knowing that you hurt, and I can’t do anything about it.”

“You are,” Louis said quietly. “By being here, you’re helping.”

Harry slid off the desk and moved to stand in front of Louis. He pulled the Slytherin into his arms and Louis slid off the desk in order to press his body into Harry’s. Harry lost track of how long they stood there. All he could do was listen to Louis’s breath as it hit his chest. There didn’t seem to be anymore tears, but his breathing still sounded wet and shaky.

Once the sun had shifted enough to change the lighting in the room significantly, Louis finally pulled away just far enough to pull Harry’s face down towards his own. Their lips met with a passion that Harry hadn’t been expecting. The kiss was wet from Louis’s tears, but neither boy let that deter them. Soon, Louis was back up on the desk with Harry between his legs.

“I love you,” Louis spoke into Harry’s mouth. It took a moment for the words to clear the fog in Harry’s head, but as soon as they did, he pulled back to stare at the Slytherin boy.

There had been moments when Harry had almost said it, yet he’d always chickened out. There had been moments when he thought Louis was going to say it, yet he never did. Now, here it was.

Harry took in the deadly serious look on Louis’s face before he spoke with all of the emotion he could summon. “I love you too.”

And with that, their lips were touching again. Harry’s hands pushed Louis’s robes off his shoulders. Louis’s shirt had already started to become untucked, and it was with ease that Harry pulled it completely loose. His lips started trailing down Louis’s neck as his hands trailed up the skin of Louis’s back.

“Harry,” Louis choked out.

Harry didn’t pull away as he hummed into Louis’s skin as a response.

“Harry,” Louis said more forcefully. He pushed the Gryffindor boy slightly, and Harry pulled away in confusion.

“What is it?” Harry’s brows were furrowed in worry. Maybe he had pushed too far when Louis was still upset.

“I-” Louis seemed unable to get out what he wanted to say, and Harry rubbed the skin of Louis’s hips where his hands still rested under the Slytherin boy’s shirt.

“‘S okay, Lou.” He felt his voice quiver after the exertion of the snogging, but he hoped his words came across as comforting. He wouldn’t let his own arousal get in the way of what Louis wanted. “I don’t want to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Louis’s head snapped up. “That’s not what I meant. I want to do this. That’s not the problem.”

Harry’s confusion returned. “Then what is it?”

“I- I want to do more.” Louis finally forced the words out. “More than we’ve done before.”

Louis lowered his head, and he trailed a hand across Harry’s chest in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. Harry’s mind ran over Louis’s words multiple times. They had done plenty in the five months of their relationship. In fact, there was really only one thing they hadn’t done at least once.

“Oh.”

Harry couldn’t think of anything more to say than that.

“We don’t have to,” Louis quickly said, clearly taking Harry’s surprise as reluctance.

“No,” Harry replied a bit too forcefully. He quickly added on, “I want to.”

Louis’s breath quickened as he looked up at Harry. “You want to?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay,” Louis breathed.

The two boys watched each other for several moments, amazed that this was really happening.

Harry glanced around the empty classroom. “Here?”

“Where else do we have?” Louis asked.

Harry shrugged. “I just pictured my first time--our first time--a bit more romantic and someplace where we couldn’t be interrupted.”

“It will be romantic,” Louis assured him. “If you want to do it, that is. We’ll make it romantic. Does the place really matter?”

Harry looked back down at the Slytherin boy with a smile. “No, it doesn’t.” He leaned down to kiss Louis briefly. “Not as long as it’s with you,” he muttered, his lips brushing against Louis’s.

Harry’s hands moved out from under Louis’s shirt and started undoing the buttons down the shirt front.

XXX

It was several hours after sunset before Louis made it to the Slytherin common room. With curfew having passed much earlier, Louis was expecting to find the room empty, which lead to his cry of shock when Leigh’s voice called out loudly, “Where have you been?”

Louis stumbled as he nearly toppled over a small table. He spun to find Leigh sitting on her favorite chair in front of the fire with a book discarded on the arm rest. It was too much like breaking curfew and coming home to your irate parent for Louis’s tastes.

“Well, Mum,” he stated as he crossed his arms. “If you must know, I was out with Harry.”

Leigh’s faux angry expression that had been masking her slight worry was replaced with a large smile.

“Figured. Liam hadn’t seen Harry all day either. You guys have been gone since breakfast. Can’t remember you two ever being that bad before. You always show up for lunch and dinner, at least. What the hell were you doing?”

Louis hoped it was too dark for her to see the flush on his cheeks as memories of the day came flooding back to him.

“Quite a lot,” he replied vaguely.

“Holy shit. You had sex.”

Leigh was nearly laughing from joy. Her arm flailed out and knocked her book off the arm rest. As it hit the floor with a loud clatter, Louis hoped their house members wouldn’t come inspect what was happening.

“Not fooling around, somewhat innocent crap,” Leigh continued. “Actual real sex. You had sex.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Does saying it over and over make the idea more believable to you?”

“At least you’re not denying it,” she said mostly to herself. “Niall made a joke about it when we couldn’t find you. We all thought it was a possibility, yet I’m still kind of surprised.”

“And why’s that exactly?” Louis moved to take a seat in the chair adjacent to the one Leigh occupied. “What’s so shocking about Harry and I having sex?”

Leigh shrugged. “It’s not that it’s shocking. It’s more like I’m so happy for you two that I just feel overwhelmed with that idea that you really did it.”

“That’s weird, Leigh. You care far too much about Harry and I’s relationship. I think you need one of your own.”

Leigh stuck her tongue out playfully, but she didn’t speak as she bent over to pick her book up from the floor.

“Why though?” Louis suddenly couldn’t help from asking. “Why do all of you guys seem so happy for me and Harry all the time?”

Leigh raised an eyebrow as she sat her book on a nearby table. “Have you two seen yourselves? There’s something absolutely mesmerizing about you two as a couple. I don’t know if it’s the Gryffindor-Slytherin thing or the six years of crushing thing or what. No matter what it is though, it’s there. I think you two are the only couple that’s ever made me think there might be such a thing as soul mates.”

“Soul mates,” Louis repeated in disbelief.

“Yep,” Leigh nodded enthusiastically. “If anyone I know has been lucky enough to find their soul mates, it’s you two.”

“You really think Harry and I are soul mates?”

“I’m not really the person who can say that for sure, but you certainly seem like it to me.”

Louis suddenly became lost in his own thoughts as he stared into the dim fire. He paid no mind to Leigh as she picked up her book and bid him good night. He didn’t think about the fact that he had classes the next day. Only one thought occupied his mind: Were he and Harry soul mates?


	15. Chapter 15

“Remember,” Professor Chao informed them that Monday morning. “Your latest assignments are due at the end of this week. I hope you’ve been working hard.”

Louis normally would have laughed whenever a professor spoke the words “working hard,” but this time he couldn’t. This assignment had really kicked his arse, and Louis had actually been giving it everything he had. Maybe it was some weird, masochistic obsession with his future, but something was making Louis unable to skive off the work.

“I’ll be collecting them at the beginning of class Friday, and remember that you’re not getting any more time to work in class. I expect you to meet up on your own time if you need to.”

The five boys didn’t pay much mind as the professor issued his warnings. Their assignments could all be done alone, even if they’d be seeing each other daily anyway.

Louis tried to suppress a smile as he felt Harry’s hand on his thigh. He pretended to listen to Professor Chao, but Harry knew that he had the Slytherin’s complete attention, just like always. The low key flirting continued for several minutes before they heard Niall scoff from the desk behind him.

“I can’t watch this,” the Irish boy muttered just loud enough for the couple to hear.

Louis and Harry bit back laughs and continued on. Once class was over, they went about their usual business of packing up their bags. It wasn’t until they turned to leave that they were surprised to see Niall, Liam, and Zayn blocking their path with arms crossed.

“What the hell?” Louis asked with amusement. “Did we do something illegal?”

A smirk broke out on Niall’s face. “You two had sex yesterday, didn’t you?”

At the shock on Louis and Harry’s faces, the Hufflepuff burst into laughter.

“I knew it! When we couldn’t find either of you all day, I knew that had to be it. I told you guys.”

Niall elbowed Liam and Zayn, causing Liam to push slightly back.

“We agreed,” Liam reminded the boy.

Louis couldn’t completely hide his smile as he tried to act indignant. “Is there no one in this school who doesn’t know?”

Louis and Harry’s three friends shrugged.

“You’re being pretty obvious today, mate,” Zayn said.

“Aren’t we always like this?” Harry asked. He pushed past the others and began leading everyone down the hall. “You lot are always complaining.”

“It’s worse.” Liam actually shuttered.

Zayn nodded. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you two have managed.”

“It’s like you have this even weirder connection,” Niall added. “Like, proper weird shit.”

“I’m so glad our relationship is inspiring, Haz.”

Louis grinned exaggeratedly up at Harry, who let out a loud burst of laughter.

“No, really,” Liam said. “I ever get like this with a girl and feel free to kill me.”

“Have fun with your pathetic love life, Payne.”

“Shut it, Tomlinson.”

“Don’t think we have anything to worry about,” Niall assured Liam and Zayn. “They’re,” he motioned to Louis and Harry, “not normal. No way more than two people we know can get like that.”

“I don’t know.” Harry smiled. “Zayn and Perrie are rather adorable.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t hide the blush that colored his cheeks.

“Absolutely adorable,” Louis, Liam, and Niall all agreed.

“Shut up,” Zayn muttered with little heat behind it.

Niall threw an arm around the Ravenclaw’s shoulders. “Why don’t you ask her out again, Zayn? It’s been a while. Maybe she’s changed her mind.”

“Nah.” Zayn shook his head. “It’s her turn to make a move. She turned me down because she wasn’t ready. When she’s ready, she’ll let me know.”

“How do you know she’s not trying and you’re just oblivious?” Liam asked.

Zayn continued to shake his head. “No. I’m not going to push her. If she wants to date, then she’ll say so.”

“Suit yourself, mate.” Niall clapped him on the shoulder before pulling away. “I just hope you two get on it before we leave Hogwarts for good.”

The throwaway comment about their futures was enough to put a damper on conversation.

XXX

The Slytherin versus Ravenclaw game came up much quicker than either Louis or Harry were expecting. Louis suddenly threw himself into Quidditch practice, and Harry thought that Slytherin had better win after he was forced to go without his boyfriend for such long periods of time. The lack of time together also meant that Harry had yet to tell Louis about the scout’s presence. He’d meant to. He really had. But the next thing he knew it was the day before the game, Louis was going crazy from stress, and Harry just couldn’t lay it on him.

“It’ll be better than the Gryffindor game,” Louis said as he walked past Harry for the millionth time. Louis had yet to cease pacing since they entered the unused classroom.

“We’re still not up to where I’d hoped to be,” Louis continued. “But we should at least put up a fight. They don’t want a horrible season either. I think their desire to win has dampened their hatred of me, especially this close to the game, but it’s still a bit hard to get them to pass the quaffle to me. That won’t help. Sometimes they start playing like there’s two chasers instead of three, but I’ll do what I can. Our defense will definitely be better. Our beaters have really gotten good, and Lucy is finally acting like she knows how to play keeper.”

He stopped for a breath, and Harry butted in. “That sounds good, Lou. I’m sure you’ll be amazing.”

Louis twirled around to face Harry. “Yeah?” he breathed. And even though Harry hadn’t actually seen the team play, he knew that his answer would make or break Louis’s confidence.

“Yeah,” Harry affirmed. He stepped away from the desk he’d been leaning on to reach out for Louis’s hand. He pulled the Slytherin towards him until they were wrapped up in each other.

“You’re the greatest Quidditch player I’ve ever seen play,” Harry continued. He was talking into Louis’s hair as Louis buried his face in Harry’s chest. “And I’m not just saying that as your boyfriend. You really are. You’re an amazing captain too, and your team will get over whatever was up their arses last time.” Harry smiled as he felt more than heard Louis’s slight chuckle. “You’ll play amazingly.”

“Hope so,” Louis said quietly.

Harry could hear the smile on his face, and his heart felt lighter knowing he’d helped ease Louis’s nerves. He lifted Louis’s chin in order to kiss the shorter boy.

“You’ll play brilliantly,” Harry muttered one more time before he sealed Louis’s lips with his own.

XXX

Harry only got to see Louis for less than five minutes before the game the next day. The Slytherin was on edge again and just wanted to get down to the pitch and prepare himself.

He still didn’t know about the scout. At this point, Harry hoped that he wouldn’t find out about it until after the game. It would keep Louis from screwing up from his nerves, which would only worsen if he knew the truth.

As soon as he reached the pitch with Zayn, Harry scanned the stands where the teachers and occasional parent typically sat. Harry could spot two unfamiliar wizards sitting next to each other. If their advanced age hadn’t eliminated them as parents, the clipboards they were holding hinted that they were here for more professional reasons.

Harry nudged Zayn, who had only learned of the scout during the walk to the pitch, in the side and motioned towards the men.

“Seems like him.” Zayn nodded. “Don’t know who else he’d be.”

Harry nodded absent-mindedly as he continued to watch the scout closely.

“I just hope Louis flies well today,” Harry said.

“He will,” Zayn assured him. “Even during the last game, he was obviously the best player out there. It’ll be the same this time.”

“You talking about Louis?” Niall questioned from Zayn’s other side. “That lad couldn’t play badly if he had a horrible case of the stomach flu during a game. He’ll be fine.”

“You two better be right.”

“Relax, Haz.” Liam, who sat on Harry’s other side, wrapped an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “As much as I hate to build up the competition, they’re right. Even with our incredible win back in October and current lead, I’m still worried about how Slytherin will do in this game, and it’s all because of Tomlinson.”

Harry continued to watch the scout, unable to tear his eyes away until Louis and the other Slytherin players walked out onto the pitch. Harry cheered as loudly as he could, not caring that he was one of the few non-Slytherins who had decked out in green. Liam and Niall joined him, and Harry couldn’t wait to tell Louis about how Liam nearly knocked out another Gryffindor for mocking his support of Slytherin. Zayn laughed when they tried to pull him up, insisting that his loyalties had to stay with Ravenclaw, but even he applauded when Louis’s name was called out across the stands.

The game started with more tension than Harry could ever remember feeling from a Quidditch game. Even after Slytherin’s horrible playing back in October, the Ravenclaws seemed worried. That fact left Harry feeling more assured about the scout sitting in the stands.

Sure enough, Louis played brilliantly, and his teammates weren’t quite as terrible as last match either. There was still a bit of visible animosity amongst them, but Harry wondered if he was the only one picking up on it. They passed Louis the quaffle, although a bit reluctantly in Harry’s point-of-view, and when Louis shouted something out, they at least listened reluctantly, which was more than last game.

The game was quickly tied. Harry had no doubt that Slytherin would be winning if it weren’t for the slight tension among their team. Louis appeared frustrated, and Harry wanted to run to him and assure him that he was playing fantastically.

Louis scored two goals in a row, which put Slytherin farther ahead than they’d been all game. This extra boost of confidence seemed to do the trick for both teams. The Ravenclaws began to fumble more and more as the Slytherins continued to score. In seemingly no time at all, Slytherin had a huge lead.

“If this keeps up, we’re in trouble,” Liam said. He was biting his lip as he watched the game anxiously. Slytherin seemed poised to do to Ravenclaw almost exactly what Gryffindor had done to them, except Ravenclaw had the advantage of having some points already from a previous match.

“If they do this again to Hufflepuff, Gryffindor’s screwed!” Niall yelled, and Harry couldn’t tell if he was excited or indignant about his house’s potential defeat.

“They might already be screwed,” said Zayn. He wasn’t usually that into Quidditch, just saw it as a mild entertainment, but his eyes weren’t leaving the action of the game. “This is mad. Never seen a turnaround like this during a previous season.”

Harry smiled for the first time since he’d left Louis that morning. This was good. There was no way Slytherin could screw up too badly at this point. At least, he didn’t think there was.

Suddenly, the Slytherin seeker, Jaden, began to dive. A rush of adrenaline had Harry jumping to his feet before he could even process what was happening. The Ravenclaw seeker was fast behind, and the two chased the snitch across the Quidditch pitch. The Ravenclaw seeker was fast, but Jaden had gotten too much of a head start. Harry screamed as the Slytherin lifted his fist into the air. Harry probably wouldn’t have a voice tomorrow, but that was okay. Slytherin had won. Louis had played brilliantly. Harry hadn’t screwed Louis over.

Harry tore through the stands, not even waiting to see the Slytherin team rejoice on the field. He wanted to see Louis before the scout did. It was difficult to push through the large crowd of students, and even with his quick exit, Harry knew the scout would have a much easier journey to the Slytherin locker room. Sure enough, the two men were standing nearby once Harry reached it. Louis had yet to come out, and Harry took a deep breath before approaching.

“Hello.” He smiled, hoping to will his nerves away. “One of you must be Mr. Adorno. I’m Harry Styles. I wrote to you a few months ago.”

“Aw, yes.” One of the men took a step forward. He was the larger one of the two, both in height and weight, and Harry could sense a feeling of superiority that this man imposed over the other. “I would be Mr. Adorno. This is my assistant Mr. Zimmerli.”

The other man nodded politely in Harry’s direction but did not show any interest at all in introducing himself farther. He seemed to be focused on whatever he had written on his parchment during the game.

Mr. Adorno, however, was still watching Harry with a smile, and Harry shifted uncomfortably under the gaze.

“So glad you wrote.” Mr. Adorno spoke in a cheerful way that showed he was absolutely thrilled to be here. “That was quite the game. That Tomlinson certainly is something. You weren’t hyping him up at all, were you? I’m sure you’re quite proud to be his friend.”

Harry shook his head. “Not friend. Boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Mr. Adorno’s smile changed slightly. “I see. Then I suppose you’ll be even more proud. Granted, it’s a good thing you didn’t specify your relationship in your letter. I would have been far more likely to brush your words aside as exaggerations. Romance can fog up our better judgement, can’t it?”

“I suppose.” He really wished Louis would come out already. “I think we can agree that in this case it hasn’t though. I just got lucky enough to have a talented boyfriend.”

“That you did,” Mr. Adorno nodded. Mr. Zimmerli had yet to glance up from the parchment, but Mr. Adorno seemed unconcerned with such things. Before he could say something else to Harry, the locker room door began to open.

Harry held his breath in anticipation. Louis came through, messing with his broom and not looking up to see Harry and the two men. He seemed happy, which caused Harry’s smile to brighten. Louis had taken several steps before he finally glanced up, smiling at the sight of Harry, but upon focusing on the two strange men, his smile began to turn into a look of confusion.

“Um, hi?”

Harry took a step closer to Louis, who was still watching the two men closely. He took Louis’s hand in his own and guided him closer to where the two men were standing.

“Louis Tomlinson,” Mr. Adorno said with a large smile. He stuck his hand out for a handshake, and Louis took it even though he was still frowning at the man. “I’m Todd Adorno, scout for the Yorkshire Quidditch team. This is my assistant Martin Zimmerli. We just had to have a word with you after that game.”

“Scout?” Louis echoed. “I didn’t know a scout was coming to the game.”

“Did your boyfriend not tell you?” Mr. Adorno was smiling as if he was revealing the greatest secret. Harry’s stomach churned as his omission came to light. “He wrote to me back in January asking me to come to the game. Spoke so highly of you that I just had to come, and I wasn’t disappointed. You’re a good player, Tomlinson. I can’t tell you anything for certain yet, but don’t be surprised if we get in touch. You may have just cemented a future career if you want it.”

He began to follow his assistant, who was already several feet away. “Enjoy your celebration,” Mr. Adorno called back with a wave.

Louis continued to stare at the place where the two men had stood. Harry squeezed his hand lightly, trying to get a reaction.

“My boyfriend wrote to them,” Louis muttered just loud enough for Harry to hear. “In January.” He finally turned to look up at Harry. “How come I didn’t know about that?”

Harry frowned at Louis’s lack of noticeable happiness. “I meant to tell you closer to the game because I didn’t want you to stress about it too much. Then it was too close, and I thought it would be too stressful.”

Louis just looked at him for several minutes with his blank look still intact before turning his gaze down at the ground. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

Harry reached out to grip Louis’s upper arms, willing the boy to look back up at him.

“You don’t sound happy enough for someone who’s going to get offered a position as a professional Quidditch player.”

The statement seemed to send a shock through Louis, and he looked back up at Harry. “Might. Might get offered,” he corrected. “He could’ve just said that because he didn’t want to be rude.”

Harry shook his head adamantly. “You should have heard him before you came out here. He was serious. You flew incredibly, Louis. You really think he was lying about all that?”

“Sure, I played fine.”

Harry wanted to growl in frustration as Louis downgraded himself just like he had all season.

“But good enough to play professionally? There’s no way.”

“You really have no idea how talented you are, Lou.”

Louis shrugged. “It’s just-” He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. “How could you not tell me?”

Harry felt the knots in his stomach, which had loosened due to Mr. Adorno’s words earlier, tighten once more.

“I told you. I didn’t want to stress you out, and I knew you’d be amazing anyway.” Louis was looking off into the distance instead of Harry. “Louis. Louis, please don’t be mad. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“I don’t know what I am,” Louis frowned. “I think I need to process everything that just happened. Can-can I talk to you later?”

He pushed passed Harry and began to walk towards the castle. Harry spun to watch him go as his stomach churned uncomfortably. Louis stopped walking abruptly and turned back towards Harry. He watched the taller boy for a few moments before slowly walking back to him. Harry did nothing but watch as Louis came to stand directly in front of him. Louis didn’t say anything as he went on his toes. He kissed Harry quickly on the cheek before taking a step back again.

“It’ll be okay, Harry. Don’t worry or anything. I’m so confused right now, and I need to be alone. I may be mad. I don’t even know, but we’re okay. I promise.”

Harry frowned as he watched Louis walk away.


	16. Chapter 16

Over the course of the year, Sundays had developed into the day of the week that Louis and Harry spent together apart from their friends. It felt almost wrong to break the routine, but Louis hadn’t been able to approach the Gryffindor table after he’d finished his breakfast. Instead, he’d quickly exited with the feeling of Harry’s eyes on his back. Leigh had followed him at first, but he’d eventually shooed her away saying he wanted to be alone. Since then, he’d been staring at the ceiling of his dormitory feeling far more boring than Louis Tomlinson enjoyed being.

He hadn’t spent much time in this room lately. In years past, Louis could remember lounging around here some evenings or even entire days during the weekend with his roommates. They’d joke around and gorge themselves on the sweets their parents had sent earlier that day. If they were really feeling adventurous, they’d sometimes go nick food from the kitchens and bring enough for a feast all the way back to the dorm.

It felt like such a long time ago now.

Louis couldn’t remember the last time he’d done anything in this room other than sleep and get dressed. He was always being subjected to cold glares from those same roommates he had once spent a good deal of time with. And the hot water in the shower turning ice cold could have been a coincidence the first time, but it certainly wasn’t the following five times. The dorm just hadn’t been Louis’s hangout of choice this school year.

The other boys were all gone now though. Louis didn’t know when they’d be back, but he was enjoying the solitude. You didn’t get much of that at a boarding school. Usually Louis liked constantly having others around to joke and have fun with. Merlin knows he liked having Harry around so much, but for the first time in quite a while, Louis found himself reveling in the aloneness that he so rarely got.

Of course, Louis was doing nothing other than running over the events of yesterday afternoon. It had been almost twenty-four hours now, and he was still in the same state of shock. The things Mr. Adorno had said to him played in a loop through Louis’s mind. They wanted to give him hope, but he couldn’t take it. Hope led to hurt. He was just another seventh year Quidditch captain. How could he be the one in a hundred lucky enough to go professional? Louis had never fancied himself that lucky, not even now.

And then there was Harry and his role in the whole thing. There wasn’t a doubt in Louis’s mind that what Harry had done was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for Louis. That wasn’t in question. The fact that Harry clearly believed Louis had what it took made Louis love the Gryffindor boy even more, which was impressive in and of itself.

Still, Louis couldn’t help the uneasiness he felt over not having known that the scout was in the crowd. He’d been trying to think about how he would have felt if he’d known, and all he could think about was dropping the quaffle or throwing it in the wrong direction of the hoops. Not knowing had been for the better, Louis decided. It was causing him enough anxiety now. How would it have been if he’d known before?

So, he wasn’t angry at Harry. Louis was sure of that much. Harry was probably stressing out thinking that Louis was upset. If anything was going to get Louis to leave his solitude, it was knowing he was upsetting Harry. The problem wasn’t Harry though. It was that Louis’s perception of the future had just been flipped on its head in the span of minutes once Mr. Adorno spoke to him.

Louis was going to be lucky to graduate. He’d known that since fifth year when he had looked down at the O.W.Ls tests and been largely confused. He’d never admit it out loud, but Louis had been dreaming of marrying Harry since he was eleven. That was one vision of his future that had always stayed the same, even if it had become more assured recently. Once he had Harry, Louis had finally started confronting the other aspects of his future that he needed to piece together. Harry had seemed to agree readily enough to the idea of living in London, which is always where they had lived in Louis’s daydreams. Harry would be near the Ministry of Magic, and Louis would scrounge around for any job that would accept his Hogwarts N.E.W.T.s. If that didn’t work, Louis would search in the muggle world, although he figured his lack of muggle education would make that even more difficult.

Now the unattainable dream of being a professional Quidditch player was coming back, and with it came Louis’s entire dream of the future from when he was younger. It was all there: Harry, Quidditch, even London. Louis still hadn’t really discussed kids with Harry yet, but he knew Harry well enough to figure that part of his dream future was a good possibility as well. Louis had worked so hard over the years to be okay with not achieving his full dream, and now here it was.

He should have been happy, jumping around everywhere and annoying all of his friends. Instead, he was holed up in his dormitory unwilling to accept that it was real. Was this really what achieving your dreams felt like? Why was it so hard for him to just take it and be happy?

Could he do that? Just let all the insecurities go and be happy? Others seemed to do it with no problem at all. Harry, for instance. The boy always bounced back from disappointment with a quickness that left Louis jealous.

Harry. He needed to see Harry. That was it. Louis wished he had realized it earlier. Harry was like an unending ray of sunshine that always made Louis feel better. Why was he sitting up here feeling like shit when he could be with Harry?

His mind was still reeling over the chaos of his thoughts as Louis flew through the Slytherin common room and up the many flights of stairs to and up Gryffindor tower. Louis was halfway there before he started to wonder if Harry would even be there once he reached his destination, but with a lack of a better place to look, he kept going. He didn’t stop until he was standing in front of the Fat Lady. The portrait stared at him in surprise as he doubled over, a sharp pain causing him to grasp his side. Running from the dungeons to the top of a tower in a castle the size of Hogwarts wasn’t advisable.

“I need in,” Louis gasped. He hoped the portrait could make out his words. “I have to see Harry.”

The portrait frowned. “I can’t let you in without a password, young man. You know that. Especially when I know you’re not a Gryffindor.”

“I just need to see Harry.”

Louis slid down the wall opposite the portrait, still attempting to regain his breath. He tugged at his hair in frustration as he realized he would never get in.

Glances down the hall showed that this corridor was deserted, and Louis didn’t have much hope that a Gryffindor student would wander up anytime soon. He looked back at the Fat Lady, who was still staring at him with a sort of annoyed curiosity.

Her curiosity seemed to win out over her annoyance. “Did you two fight?”

Of course the Fat Lady had seen Louis drop Harry off at the common room multiple times. He’d never given much thought to a painting being so well informed of his love life.

“No,” he told her impatiently. “Not fight. There’s just been a lot going on, and I need to see him.”

She nodded faintly, as if this made complete sense to her. Louis got the distinct impression that she was enjoying getting a bit of gossip. What else did the portraits have to do with their unlimited time?

“He’s in there.” She babbled excitedly, thrilled to be able to share the information, especially when Louis’s head popped up in curiosity. “Came back after breakfast with Liam Payne, and they haven’t left since.”

“You are far too well informed for a painting,” Louis stated without thinking.

She gasped in offence that was, in Louis’s opinion, over exaggerated, and turned in her frame to look away from him. So much for getting into the Gryffindor common room.

“Look,” Louis continued as he stood up from the floor. “Can you just get a message to him somehow? Using one of the portraits in there maybe?”

“I can’t leave my post. I have a responsibility.”

“It’ll only be a few seconds. No one will be that frustrated about having to wait.”

“I have a responsibility,” she repeated, and Louis got the distinct impression that he wouldn’t be winning her over after his slip up.

“Fine.” He sighed. “I’ll just wait here then.”

Louis settled down on the floor once more, fully intending to wait no matter how long it took for a Gryffindor to come across him.

He should have known it wouldn’t take long. It was a Sunday after all, and students were roaming the castle without the hassle of classes. What was significantly more lucky was that it was Liam of all people who exited the common room.

“Louis?” Liam appeared shocked to find the Slytherin boy sitting against the opposite wall. “How long have you been out here?”

“Oh.” Louis mimed looking at a nonexistent watch. “A few minutes or so.”

Louis could see Liam pondering whether or not Louis was downplaying the time, but he didn’t press the topic. He sent a look back into the common room, the opening of which he hadn’t bothered to close yet.

“Have you come to see Harry then?” Liam asked unnecessarily.

“Yep. You wouldn’t mind getting him for me?”

“Not at all.” Liam smiled and disappeared once more. The portrait swung shut behind him, and Louis took in the Fat Lady’s clear annoyance at Louis’s success. He laughed slightly as he stood up from the cold floor, and the Fat Lady let out a loud harrumph. It was several minutes before the portrait opened again to let Liam and Harry out. Louis immediately took in Harry’s disheveled appearance. He didn’t seem to have expected to be leaving his dorm, and Louis knew he would look similarly if he bothered to look.

“Right,” Liam said as he looked between the two boys. “I’m off to meet Zayn then. You two have fun.”

They waved absent-mindedly as Liam disappeared down the hall.

Harry took a step forward, allowing the painting to swing shut again. The Fat Lady was watching the two boys with interest now, but neither one glanced her way.

Harry cleared his throat. “How-how are you, Lou?”

Louis shrugged. “Still not too sure about that, to be honest.”

Harry nodded and glanced down at his shoes.

“Harry,” Louis sighed. “This isn’t awkward. Why are you making it seem awkward?”

Harry looked up with slight surprise colouring his features. “Well, after last time, I just wondered-”

“I’m not mad at you.” Louis stepped right up to Harry and placed a hand on the taller boy’s cheek. “I told you that last time.”

Louis tugged Harry’s head lower so that he could bring their lips together. Soon, Harry was pushing him backwards until his back hit the opposite wall. Neither one even heard the Fat Lady’s gasps of, “Oh my!” as she covered her eyes with a painted handkerchief.

The two boys were out of breath when they finally parted. Louis made sure to keep a hold of Harry’s waist to prevent the boy from moving too far out of reach.

“I was right.” Louis laughed. “You did make me feel better.”

Harry laughed too. “Is that why you came up here?”

“Yep.” Louis nodded earnestly. “I was tired of feeling sorry for myself, and then I realized that if anyone could make me happy, it was you, and I was stupid to think that I needed to be alone.”

Harry smiled at him before leaning down to nuzzle into Louis’s neck.

“I’ve missed you,” he breathed against Louis’s skin.

“It’s been a day, Harry,” Louis replied with faux exasperation.

“Too long,” was Harry’s mumbled reply. “Much too long.”

“I think we should make up for it,” Louis whispered. He smirked as Harry froze and slowly lifted his head.

“You mean?”

Louis nodded and watched with satisfaction as Harry smiled.

“Same classroom?” Harry asked.

“Same classroom.” Louis was already breathless.

Harry giggled joyfully as he began tugging Louis down the hall.

Both boys were still oblivious to the Fat Lady’s embarrassed remarks.


	17. Chapter 17

N.E.W.T.s preparations were still under full swing for the seventh years as March turned into April. With his newly reignited hopes of professional Quidditch, Louis was finding it even harder than usual to focus on studying, which, as it turned out, led to Harry having a harder time than usual as well. Harry had to remind Louis that N.E.W.T.s were important almost daily. With the Quidditch position not guaranteed, Louis knew that his scores really could be what determined his future. It was just hard to focus on that with thoughts of professional Quidditch on his mind.

Harry, on the other hand, knew the exact scores he needed to get into the Ministry, and he had buried himself in books over the past several weeks. There were still two months to exams, which meant that the entire seventh year class was in varying states of stress and anxiety. Some were going with the Harry route of studying early while others, like Louis, just couldn’t see the point yet.

Still, where Harry was, Louis was likely to be as well, and the Slytherin hadn’t seen as much of the library in the past six years than he had in the past several weeks, even if he was trying to distract Harry far more than accomplish any reading.

“Lou,” Harry groaned for the hundredth time that night. It was usually all Louis managed to get out of him until his study session was done, but it was better than being ignored. He continued to toy with Harry’s left hand as the Gryffindor boy held his quill in the right. Occasionally, Harry would pull away to turn a page or move his parchment, but Louis would snap it right back up.

Madam Pince walked by, and Louis quickly turned to the book left lying open before him. He wasn’t technically doing anything wrong, but he didn’t fancy any glares from the uptight librarian. Once she was out of sight again, Louis pushed the book away and turned back to watch Harry as he read. The Gryffindor boy’s brow was furrowed just as it got every time he concentrated hard on a particular passage.

He was reading something about international magical law from what Louis could tell. Dreadfully boring stuff. Louis would be so much more interesting to pay attention to.

“Haz, how much longer?” Louis groaned.

Harry glanced up quickly before looking back at his book. “I just need to get through this chapter. I’m almost done. Promise.”

They’d been in the library for more than an hour already, and Louis has passed the point of restlessness long ago. He sighed as he continued to play with Harry’s fingers. He wanted to do more, but Harry got annoyed when he got too distracting.

Louis was concentrating on Harry’s mouth whenever the Gryffindor boy snapped his book shut and happily declared, “Done.”

Louis wasted no time getting to his feet. “Come on then,” he said loudly. Several students around him glared, and Louis laughed a bit and apologized before dragging Harry out with his arms full of the items he hadn’t had time to pack away in his bag.

The abandoned classroom had become their place, and they visited it regularly. Louis wished it was daily, but Harry’s study schedule didn’t allow for that.

The classroom was on the opposite side of the castle and down several floors from the library, so it was a decent walk even with the hurried pace that Louis set. This was the first time Harry had consented to alone time this week, and Louis didn’t like wasting it on travel time.

They were about halfway there when they heard voices. Neither boy thought anything of it as they kept up their pace, but then Sierra was coming towards them with several Slytherins and Harry felt Louis freeze beside him.

“It’s okay,” Harry whispered as his arm wrapped around Louis’s waist.

Louis had encountered his ex-best friend on a daily basis since September, of course, but that didn’t stop him from dreading each encounter. He didn’t think he’d ever get over the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach when he so much as thought of her.

Danielle, Sierra’s closest female friend and Louis’s own former friend, cooed upon catching sight of Louis and Harry. “Oh, look. It’s the two famous lovebirds.”

Louis kept his eyes on Sierra, watching her frown with distaste.

“Come on, Danielle.” Sierra stepped forward to place a hand on her friend’s arm. “We don’t want to be around the half-blood and blood traitor too long. Their dirt may rub off on us.”

Simon, the third member of their trio, laughed much too loudly. He’d always been trying to get into Sierra’s pants before, and Louis could tell that hadn’t changed. Louis wouldn’t be surprised if their parents married them off to each other. Sierra had more money, but Louis knew Simon’s parents were good negotiators. It’s how they had gained a somewhat better fortune in recent years.

Sierra dragged Danielle past Louis and Harry while refusing to look at them. Danielle laughed as she passed and called, “Bye, muggle lovers,” over her shoulder. Simon followed after them, smirking at the couple but not speaking.

Louis sagged into Harry’s side once they were gone.

“That wasn’t pleasant.” He sighed.

Harry dipped down to place a kiss to Louis’s temple.

“I guess that kind of dampens the mood.” Louis could hear the disappointment in Harry’s tone, and he couldn’t help but smile widely up at Harry.

“Not at all. I plan on showing you just how much of a blood traitor I am.”

Harry’s smile widened as Louis began to drag him down the corridor once more.

XXX

Harry’s eyes widened as he took in the Ministry seal on the letter that had just been delivered to him by a strange owl.

“Is that it?” Liam questioned. His eyes were almost as wide as Harry’s.

“It looks so official.” Jesy smiled as she leaned forward to get a better look at the envelope. “Open it,” she encouraged. “I want to know what it says.”

Harry’s hands shook as he tore the envelope open. He had written about a potential Ministry job not expecting much. Some Hogwarts students were hired before N.E.W.T.s results, but it was a longshot.

_Dear Mr. Styles,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into an entry level position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry of Magic. Please note that this acceptance relies on your N.E.W.T. scores, which you will receive this summer. The scores required for acceptance are as follows:_

Harry looked up from the parchment, not even bothering to look at the scores that he’d memorized before even applying.

“I got it,” he breathed. “I’m going to be working at the Ministry.”

Liam and Jesy both began cheering immediately, and Liam nearly pushed Harry over with the enthusiasm of his hug. Zayn, Jade, and Cameron approached as they heard the cheering from their places at the Ravenclaw table and offered their congratulations as well. Niall followed soon after, having a longer walk from the Hufflepuff table, with Perrie, Miriam, and Keith trailing behind. Harry accepted their congratulations gracefully but kept a close eye on Louis and Leigh who had finally noticed the commotion from the Slytherin table on the other side of the hall.

The friends didn’t typically gather together in the Great Hall, but Louis and Leigh seemed to have no qualms about hurrying across the hall to the rest of their friends. Harry smiled widely as Louis finally came up behind him. He shoved the parchment into his boyfriend’s hands to let him read the words for himself.

Louis had been expecting good news after the commotion, but he still couldn’t quell the large smile he felt as he read the letter. Dropping the parchment back on the table (making sure to miss the food so the letter could be kept), Louis wrapped his boyfriend in a hug from behind.

“I’m proud of you,” he whispered into Harry’s ear before dropping kisses on his cheek, temple, neck, and other places he could reach while keeping Harry wrapped up in his arms.

Harry blushed slightly, and he could feel his cheeks beginning to sting from the constant smiling he was subjecting them to.

“We’re going to be good, Louis.” Their friends had all turned to other conversations with each other, giving the couple as much privacy as they could get in the crowded hall. “Our future’s going to be good.”

The emotion Louis felt bubble up inside of him was indescribable, and he let out a slight laugh to try and calm himself.

“I think it will be too, Harry. I really do.”

With that, their lips met, neither boy caring about the other students. No professors came to tell them off either, as there were few that the couple hadn’t managed to win over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel that I should probably go ahead and say that the Danielle mentioned in this chapter wasn't supposed to be Danielle Peazer or anything. I just happened to use that name for the character, but I realized afterwards that some people may read this chapter and immediately connect that character to Danielle Peazer. I suppose you could if you really wanted to, but that's not what I intended.


	18. Chapter 18

As April turned into May, the last Quidditch match of the season began to approach. Slytherin would be playing Hufflepuff, and if Slytherin managed to win with a score of at least 550 points and a mere 100 points more than Hufflepuff, they’d get the cup.

Mr. Adorno wrote to Louis at the beginning of the month to inform him that he and his assistant would be attending the game since “the last one was quite the entertainment.” Harry spent a good two hours calming Louis down after he read that letter.

Louis had been pushing the Slytherin team hard ever since, and by some miracle, they seemed to be responding. With the thought of the cup being within their reach, they’d given up their efforts to hurt Louis. Louis had hesitated telling them about the scout, but was glad that he finally had as it had them cooperating far more than before. They claimed it was because their own flying skills would be on display, but Louis liked to think it was partially because they were happy their former captain could play professionally. Either way, they were playing better than they had all year, and Louis’s nerves about the game began to calm to a much more normal level. Mr. Adorno had already seen him play once after all. He just couldn’t play worse.

Louis could feel his entire body shaking as he left a nervous looking Harry at the entrance to the locker room the day of the game. His team mates were all in varying states of nervousness as well. Each team member had been on the team for at least two years now, and they had been a good team the entire time. Not once in Louis’s tenure as captain had Slytherin lost the cup, and in past years, Louis hadn’t even bothered to worry over it that much. But this year it was different. After such a horrifying start to the season, it was hard to believe they were at this point.

The team members were attentive as Louis stood before them. He thought back to past years when he’d had to give similar pep talks. It suddenly struck him that this would be his last one.

With a deep breath, he began to speak. “I want you all to know that I’ve had a brilliant time being your captain all these years, even if you were absolute arseholes earlier this year.”

He smiled as the teammates all laughed. It was almost easy to forget the beginning of the year. Louis finally felt like they were a team again.

“We’ve enjoyed having you too, captain,” Cayla Demarate said. “And we wanted to apologize for the beginning of the season. We’ve been talking about it this past month, and we agreed that we acted kind of ridiculous. Not that we really approve of the whole dating a Gryffindor half-blood thing of course, but you’re a brilliant Quidditch player, Tomlinson, and we can at least respect you for that.”

“Thanks.” Louis felt an embarrassing smile brighten up his face. It was the closest any of the team would come to actually befriending him again.

Lucy spoke up from beside Cayla, “If we win, can you just promise not to kiss the half-blood on the pitch because I really don’t think I can stomach any more of that.”

Louis rolled his eyes, but it was actually with a bit of fondness. He got that Lucy’s request was more about the kissing (she scowled at any couple she passed) than the blood status, no matter how she tried to write it off.

“You’ll be first on my mind if we win the cup, Lucy.”

“Thanks, captain.” She smirked as she stood and brushed off her robes. She evoked a sense of calm as she walked towards the door to the pitch. “So, I suppose we should go show the school why we’re the champions.”

“That we should,” Louis agreed as he filed after her with the rest of the team.

Hufflepuff played well. After losing every game so far this season, they seem determined to scratch out at least one win. The Slytherin team wasn’t having it though and fought back hard. The score remained close. It was the type of game that had the crowd on their feet while they screamed themselves hoarse.

The Slytherin team the entire school remembered from years past was back, and they were determined. Louis could sense Hufflepuff’s confidence dwindling as the game wore on, and they became more aware that they were losing. There was just no match for Louis’s team when they set their minds to something. He had made sure of that when he put together the team.

In the end, Slytherin came out on top. They were already two hundred points ahead when their seeker caught the snitch, and with that, they had won the cup yet again.

XXX

When Harry made it to the Slytherin locker room, Mr. Adorno and Mr. Zimmerli were standing in the same places they had been two months before. Mr. Adorno smiled brightly as Harry approached, and even Mr. Zimmerli seemed happier than he had the last time Harry had seen him.

“Mr. Styles, yes?” Mr. Adorno asked as he approached.

“Yes, sir.”

Harry smiled as he stepped forward to shake the hand of each man. He had a good feeling about this.

Louis was much quicker about leaving the locker room this time as he knew what was waiting for him. Harry was surprised though to see every single one of Louis’s teammates following behind their captain. They all still wore their Quidditch robes, as if too eager to see what would happen to bother with changing.

Louis came to stand at Harry’s side across from Mr. Adorno and his assistant.

“Mr. Adorno. Mr. Zimmerli,” Louis greeted as he shook their hands.

Harry reached out to take Louis’s hand in his own once it was free, squeezing it gently in reassurance.

“Mr. Tomlinson.” Mr. Adorno nodded. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too, sir.”

“I have some good news.” The old man’s smile widened as he took a piece of parchment from Mr. Zimmerli. “I have spoken with all of the necessary people about your ability, and it’s official. You have a place on the Yorkshire team, and if you accept, you’ll start training as soon as you graduate in June.”

Louis’s breathing stopped, and Harry’s hand in his seemed to be the only thing stopping him from falling to the ground. He’d known this might be coming, but hearing it still felt impossible.

“Really?” Louis whispered, eyes wide.

Everyone around him, except Harry, laughed.

“Yes, really, my boy.” Mr. Adorno clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a brilliant player, and anyone would be lucky to have you. This parchment here,” he held it out to Louis, but Harry had to take it as Louis continued to gape, “has more information, but I want to let you get to your celebrations. You did just win the cup after all! Mr. Smith, the coach of the Yorkshire team as I’m sure you’re aware, will be in touch soon as well. Good luck, Mr. Tomlinson. You have a bright future ahead of you.”

Louis watched the two men go in shock. He hardly noticed when Harry tackled him to the ground in excitement or even when every single one of his team mates piled on as well. It wasn’t until all of his friends showed up and joined the dog pile that Louis came to his senses.

“Oi!” He exclaimed. “I can’t breathe down here. Will you bastards get off me?”

His teammates obeyed and laughed in joy amongst each other as they ambled off towards the locker room to change out of their sweaty robes. Louis’s friends, however, stayed down on the ground, rolling around to lay in a jumbled mess instead.

Louis stared up at the bright blue sky, feeling far more optimistic than he was used to. He rubbed his thumb along the back of Harry’s hand, which was resting on Louis’s stomach. The Gryffindor boy was the only one who still had Louis in his arms, and Louis smiled as he felt Harry’s lips against his hair. The occasional slight laugh of one or two of his friends echoed through Louis’s ears, and he suddenly became so overwhelmed with emotion that a laugh burst from his mouth.

Harry went up on an elbow and looked down at Louis with an eyebrow raised. Louis could feel his other friends’ eyes on him as well, but he just shook his head until he could quell the laughter.

“I’m just happy,” he finally got out. A slight blush colored his cheeks, but his smile widened as he watched Harry’s own engulf his face.

“Me too,” Harry echoed. He leaned down to press a quick kiss to Louis’s lips, and Louis hardly heard his friends all echoing the statement.

“Lou,” Niall called once Harry was pulling away. “Slytherin celebrating?”

“Uh.” Louis struggled to pull his thoughts together. “Probably, but I hadn’t considered going to be honest.”

“You have to.” Harry frowned. “You’re captain. They’ll want to congratulate you.”

“Not so sure about that, Harry, but even if it were true, I’d much rather stay with you guys.”

“Who says you’re going alone?” Niall was sitting up now to directly face Louis.

“No,” Louis replied firmly. “There’s no way. Curses and hexes would completely ruin the day.”

Leigh rolled her eyes as she sat up as well. “Everyone’s in too good a mood to hex or curse anyone. They’d get over it. I say we take them to the common room with us.”

The others murmured their agreements with the plan, even Harry, and Louis knew he would have to give in.

“Fine, but if any of those bastards start anything please just don’t make it worse.”

“Course not, love.” Harry leaned down from where he was still perched on his elbow to kiss Louis on the cheek. “We’ll be on our best behavior.”

“You’re not the ones I’m worried about.”

“You guys just won the cup,” Zayn pointed out. “The Slytherins are as amicable as it’s possible for Slytherins to be right now.”

“Besides,” Jade said as she joined the others in getting to their feet, “They’ll probably enjoy having people there to brag to.”

“Oh, God,” Liam groaned. “I’m going to have to listen to arrogant Slytherins that aren’t Tomlinson.”

“Watch it, Payne.” Louis hit him gently on the back of his head from where he walked behind with Harry. “Or I’ll make it so you never have to listen to anyone again.”

Harry laughed lightly as he watched his boyfriend and best friend argue. That part of their relationship would never change, but Harry was happy to see the friendly edge it had taken on over the course of the year.

The banter continued until they reached the Slytherin common room. Leigh gave the password as Louis glanced around nervously, worried someone would jump out at any second to scold them. Harry squeezed Louis’s waist.

“It’s all right,” Harry murmured in Louis’s ear. “If something happens, we leave. It’ll be fine.”

Harry felt just the slightest bit of tension leave Louis’s body as the shorter boy nodded, but he was still tense as they entered the green-tinted room. The Slytherins had gone all out in a way that Louis had only ever seen after past cup wins. The crowd turned at the sight of such a large group entering, and at the sight of Louis, a cheer rose from the sea of green.

Louis seemed startled from the attention. It was so different from what he’d been receiving the rest of the year that he could do nothing but stand there and stare. Harry, noticing that Louis wasn’t going to do anything, gently pushed the boy forward. Their friends parted easily as they cheered along with the Slytherin crowd, and Louis noted that the Slytherin students took in the other house members with no comments as they swarmed Louis.

It was hard for Louis to keep up with what was happening. Shouts were coming at him from everywhere, and he didn’t even notice that he was being hoisted up above the crowd until he was in the air. Startled, he glanced down to see Harry and his male beater holding him up. From this vantage point he could see the whole room, and not one Slytherin seemed to wish ill on him at the moment. He smiled as he took in the sight, and soon he was feeding their cheers with cheers of his own.

Louis lost track of how long it had been by the time things calmed down and everyone had dissolved into groups. Harry was still by his side, but Louis noted with amusement that their other friends had dispersed around the room. While they still tended to stay in groups of two or three, they were also chatting with Slytherins, and no one had pulled out any wands.

“It’s nice,” Harry commented, reading Louis’s thoughts.

“It is,” Louis agreed. “Never thought I’d see anything like this. I’m sure my entire house will go back to being arses tomorrow, but I suppose it was nice having this for one night.”

“Maybe they will.” Harry shrugged. “Or maybe they’ll decide other houses aren’t so bad after they’re friendly with them. You can’t tell me Niall won’t win some people over.”

“Maybe.” But Louis doubted it, especially with the majority of the other students being upset about Slytherin’s win. Still, one of the things he admired about Harry was his optimism. “Anything’s possible.”

“I’m glad you got this, Louis.” Harry leaned down slightly so he could talk quietly in Louis’s ear. “You deserved this so much. All of it.”

Louis breathed in sharply. It was nice getting to be with Harry out in the open with no cruel comments from his housemates.

He looked up at Harry and shook his head.

“I didn’t deserve any of it, but I’m thankful for it. Mostly you though. I’m really thankful for you.”

Harry smiled brightly. Their faces were almost touching now, and Louis could feel a ghost of Harry’s lips on his own.

“That’s nice,” Harry whispered. “Because I’m really thankful for you too.”


	19. Chapter 19

Plans for their futures were in full swing as May turned into June. Seventh years could be seen having regular breakdowns because they couldn’t remember that one ingredient to an Amortentia potion or that one spell that was typically used to repel hinkypunks. Louis might have been the only seventh year not worried. Professional Quidditch didn’t require N.E.W.T.s after all.

Still, Harry was in the library constantly with the required scores for his chosen profession on his mind, and Louis was typically close by his side. Studying became a way for Louis to cope with his boredom while everyone around him panicked. Niall had started making jokes that Louis’s calm demeanor would lead to him having the best scores in the class, but Louis thought that Niall might actually win that distinction.

Louis had spent years unsure of his future, but Niall was still in that position. The Irish boy was taking it far better than Louis ever had. He studied but didn’t seem too worried. “I’ll get what scores I get and go from there,” had become his motto. Louis just hoped Niall didn’t end up on the sofa in his and Harry’s flat next year.

His and Harry’s flat, Louis thought with a smile as he looked over at the Gryffindor boy sitting next to him. It was officially going to happen. There wasn’t a flat yet, but there would be. Harry would get the results needed, they’d buy a flat, and Louis would apparate to Yorkshire for work. They’d talk about it excitedly every now and then in between the studying. It was going to be perfect.

Harry looked up to catch Louis watching him with a smile.

“What?” Harry asked as a smile worked its way across his face as well.

“Nothing,” Louis muttered as he turned back to the boring text he’d been trying to read. He could feel Harry’s eyes still on him, but he didn’t glance up again, even as he felt Harry’s thumb rub against his thigh. Louis brought his hand down now to cover Harry’s own.

XXX

“You all did fantastically!” Professor Chao smiled at them during their last muggle studies class of their Hogwarts careers. “I have your grades here, but no one should be worried.”

A piece of parchment landed on the desk the boys had surrounded, and Niall was the first to let out a loud cheer.

“An O!” the Irish boy exclaimed. “Don’t think I’ve ever gotten an O on anything.”

“Not in my class you haven’t, Mr. Horan.” Niall smiled up sheepishly at the professor, but Professor Chao seemed upbeat despite his strict tone. “Well done, boys,” he continued. “You deserved it.”

“Thank you, Professor Chao. For everything, not just the O.” The other four boys turned to Harry in surprise. “He is the reason we’re all friends now, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh, yeah.” In all honesty, Louis had forgotten, and he got the impression the others had too.

The four boys all took turns thanking the professor. Professor Chao seemed happier than they’d ever seen him, which was saying a lot for the bubbly professor. He seemed so pleased that his project had gone over well and accomplished his mission of interhouse unity that he even dismissed them early and beamed as he watched them leave.

XXX

N.E.W.T.s went just about the same as the O.W.L.s had two years before although significantly more stressful (not that the fifth years would believe them). The seventh years were too relieved to be finished to actively worry about their results. Now they just had the wonderful task of dreaming about what their futures would be now that they were done with school forever.

One day after the test, the rag tag group of friends found themselves packed into a compartment on the Hogwarts express.

“Twelve people were not meant to fit in here,” Cameron grumbled from his spot on the floor. He pushed Louis’s feet away from his face, grumbling when Louis put them right back.

They’d packed in as well as they could. Cameron and Niall were both on the floor with Jade in Cameron’s lap. Louis had happily settled into Harry’s lap while Perrie sat in Zayn’s across from them. Miriam was snuggled as close to Keith’s side as she could get while Leigh sat squashed into her other side. Jesy and Liam rounded out the group where they sat on the same bench as Perrie and Zayn.

“This is our last trip on the train,” Jade pointed out to her grumpy boyfriend. “Try not to ruin it with your complaining.”

“Course not, love,” Cameron gave in but with a roll of his eyes.

Perrie looked as if she was about to fall out of Zayn’s lap as she contorted herself to get her last possible glimpse of the castle as it disappeared around a turn.

“You think we’ll ever see it again?” she asked with a frown.

“Of course,” Louis piped up. Perrie didn’t frown often, and he hated to see it. “We can always come to Hogsmeade, right?”

“Not the same,” Jesy replied with a frown of her own. A melancholy mood had fallen over the group as they watched out the window, wishing in vain for Hogwarts to reappear.

“But we’re adults now,” Miriam piped up. “At least there’s that.”

Everyone half-heartedly agreed, and Miriam’s smile dropped as she took in everyone’s remaining frowns.

“You always think about the freedom part,” Zayn said. “But you never think about the leaving stuff behind part.”

Everyone nodded, and no one even bothered to make a joke about Zayn’s attempts at philosophy.

The mood did slowly lighten as the train inched closer and closer to London. It was with reluctance that the twelve friends got off the train that had come to hold a special place in their hearts. Louis’s stomach tightened as he thought about the fact that he’d be meeting Harry’s mother and sister in mere minutes, and Harry would be meeting Louis’s own family. It seemed like such a large step, even if Jay had asserted that she basically knew Harry anyway from Louis’s letters. She’d been surprisingly supportive of Louis’s relationship with a half-blood since he worked up the courage to tell her, and Louis wondered if her own experience with love had led to it.

It was difficult for the twelve friends to all say their goodbyes on the crowded platform, and there was a lot of shouting and promises to write. Louis thanked Merlin that apparition existed and he could pop in as far as Niall’s place in Mullingar if he so desired. As all their friends dispersed, Harry remained by Louis’s side, their eyes scanning the crowd for their families.

Harry, being taller, spotted his own mum before Louis could.

“She’s talking to someone.” Harry craned his neck to get a better look. “I think-I think it’s your mum, Louis.”

Louis was just as confused as Harry as they pushed through the crowd to reach the spot where their mothers were chatting happily. Gemma had been surrounded by younger girls who were pestering her with questions about the magical school, and while Gemma seemed a bit exasperated, she answered them all diligently. Jay and Anne were so engrossed in their conversation that the two boys remained unnoticed, and Louis took a moment to take in the sight.

It was unbelievable really. He’d never seen his mum talk to a muggle before. In the past she’d even refused to go in muggle shops because she didn’t want to be in close proximity to “filth.” Now, she was happily chatting about… weddings. Oh, Merlin. They were talking about weddings. Harry burst into laughter as he realized exactly what Louis had.

Harry turned to Louis with a smile. “I suppose we should go break them up before they have the whole thing planned by themselves, shouldn’t we?”

Louis’s cheeks were a light pink, but he smiled brightly and followed Harry happily towards their families, where the two boys were quickly swarmed by one giant mass of females.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! Thank you so much to everyone who read the story. I really hope you all liked it.


End file.
